The software can scan remote drives for deleted files, preview those deleted files and eventually recover them. There is obviously the need for a direct connection between the client’s computer and the admin which is utilized by a TCP/IP network connection. A software is running on the client computer that initiates the connection to the admin computer. That connection can be initiated manually or automatically.

Once the connection is established the administrator can use a graphical user interface to scan the local hard drives. A filter can be configured to find only files that match the pattern.

The remote hard drive is then scanned for deleted files. Everything that gets found will be listed in an Explorer like window. The directory structure is shown in the left pane while the right pane contains the files that have been found.

Information about the files are shown as well, most notable the size of the file and an estimation about the chance of recovering the file. Another handy feature is the Wipe button that seems to remove the deleted files permanently from the hard drive. I was not able to find out which algorithm, if any, is used to do that though.

Rogue Remover is a little freeware application that scans your hard drives for installed rogue antivirus, antispyware and hard drive utilities and removes them if you choose it. The process is not complicated and even inexperienced users should be able to use rogue remover without help.

Some of the products that Rogue Remover is able to remove are: WinAntiSpyware, WinAntiVirus, SpyAxe, VirusBlast and VirusBursters . A complete list with about one hundred programs is available at the developers homepage.

Update: Rogue Remover has been discontinued. The program has not been updated for a while and is no longer an efficient program to clean rogue antispyware from the Windows system.

Update: Rogue Remover has been discontinued. You can download Malwarebytes Antimalware Free instead which is the program’s unofficial successor. The free version is one of the most popular malware detection and removal tools available on today’s Internet.

When you first start the program you have the option to perform a quick or full scan of the system. It is suggested to run a full scan if you suspect your system to be infected with rogue antispyware. This scan may take a while, depending on the amount of data stored on your computer and the PC’s resources.

The anti malware software displays all malware that is has discovered on the system in a list to you. You can then select the malware that you want removed right away. This is usually all that it takes to remove rogueware from the computer.

I also dislike the fact that I have so many icons on my desktop, it destroys the background image that I have selected for example. One way to get rid of the icons temporarily is to use the program Icon Hider. Icon hider sits in your system tray and is able to temporarily remove all the icons on your desktop. This can be useful for aesthetic reasons, for screenshots and screencasting.

Iconhider has some additional functions that might be not that useful, judge for yourself. You may start the screensaver immediately, minimize all applications. You can use shortcuts to remove all icons, the shortcut to remove all icons is CTRL+ALT+H, the shortcut to make them appear again is CTRL+ALT+S.