Win Heal 2016

Posted: September 27, 2016

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Threat Level:	1/10
Infected PCs:	190

First Seen:	September 27, 2016
Last Seen:	May 2, 2022
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Win Heal 2016 is a system cleaner that claims to identify security flaws and remove junk data from your PC. Malware experts confirm Win Heal 2016's scan results as being predetermined and fraudulent, with its services providing no significant features beyond promoting a hoax-linked phone line. Withhold any information from threat actors operating through Win Heal 2016's hotline and use a legitimate anti-malware product for uninstalling Win Heal 2016 as appropriate.

The Healing Touch of Scamware

Even while many threat actors switch to revenue models basing themselves on holding a PC's contents hostage or collecting information, a minority of them continue using badware-based attacks. These hoaxes present misleading or incorrect system information to encourage a victim to contact a con artist, who then extracts confidential data such as credit card numbers by pretending to be an employee of a reputable company. Win Heal 2016 is one of the latest samples of such hoaxes malware analysts can confirm for the year.

Although Win Heal 2016 models itself as being a supposedly annually-updated product, there are no previous versions of this fake system scanner. Win Heal 2016 advertises its features as encompassing general system cleanup, Registry analysis, and overall security monitoring (although it doesn't claim to remove threats or other, unwanted software). Launching the badware causes it to display preset graphics imitating the above features by showing counts of undisclosed Registry problems and stability issues, along with a 'Windows damage severity' rating. Malware analysts found no indication that Win Heal 2016 scans the system, and even clean machines always will be identified as having present security threats or optimization problems.

Win Heal 2016 uses its scan results, a secondary pop-up graphic and a Windows taskbar notification for recommending that the user calls its technical support service. Once in contact, con artists posing as support technicians may try to exfiltrate financial information or ask you to make settings changes that give them remote access to your PC.

A Dose of PC Medicine that will not Hurt Your Savings

PC users taking Win Heal 2016's recommendations at its word can compromise their identity, finances or PCs by trusting professional con artists indiscriminately. However, Win Heal 2016 does show many of the most common visual indicators of being a badware, including failing to describe the 'problems' it finds with your PC, offering unusually broad and poorly-defined scanning features, and failing to deliver any degree of accuracy in its results. Malware experts also note that, regardless of the nature of the problem, no legitimate PC security product or Registry cleaner to date uses phone hotlines to conduct system repairs by default.

Win Heal 2016 and other, fake Registry optimizers are capable of installing themselves rarely, but can use other software installers for compromising your PC. These bundle installers may include hijacked or mischievously modified versions of real programs, such as Flash updates, as well as third-party products distributed on freeware resources (including peer-to-peer downloading networks). PC owners can protect themselves by downloading all software from official, reliably safe sources like the Adobe website or using anti-malware scanning features for detecting possible Win Heal 2016 installers, in other cases.

Most security products with anti-malware features should be able to uninstall Win Heal 2016. However, no security product can stop you from giving away your information, and malware experts always find it commendable to learn about the workings of system components like the Registry, for taking the mystery out of threats like Win Heal 2016.

Technical Details

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

File name without pathWinHeal.lnkHKEY..\..\..\..{RegistryKeys}Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\WinHeal

Additional Information

The following directories were created:

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\WinHeal%PROGRAMFILES%\WinHeal%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\WinHeal