PC Health Kit

Posted: June 4, 2013

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.

Ranking:	10,387
Threat Level:	1/10
Infected PCs:	35,757

First Seen:	June 4, 2013
Last Seen:	October 9, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

PC Health Kit is a rogue Registry cleaner that creates fake alerts and deliberately-inaccurate scans as a means of defrauding the PC's user – by first detecting a series of fake infections and numerous related computer problems, and then asking for a premium registration fee before PC Health Kit can repair your computer. Like any similar form of scamware, PC Health Kit doesn't have any functions focused on actually helping PC Health Kit delete malware or repair your system, and SpywareRemove.com malware researchers always discourage spending money on PC Health Kit. Any problems related to the presence of PC Health Kit can be resolved by deleting PC Health Kit and all associated PC threats, which usually is most easily enacted through the anti-malware-scanning functions of a true anti-malware program.

PC Health Kit: Getting You Sick to Sell You Its Snake Oil Medicine

PC Health Kit is heavily reminiscent of other rogue system optimizers and Registry cleaners, including members of the FakeSysDef family like System Defragmenter, Ultra Defragger, HDD Control, Win HDD, Win Defrag, Win Defragmenter, Disk Doctor, Hard Drive Diagnostic, HDD Diagnostic, HDD Plus, HDD Repair, HDD Rescue, Smart HDD, Defragmenter, HDD Tools, Disk Repair, Windows Optimization Center, Scanner, HDD Low and Hdd Fix. Attacks from PC Health Kit appear in two major formats: a series of pop-up warnings that are crafted to look like generalized system errors, and various system scans that persistently detect high amounts of system problems, including Registry errors, startup entries for malware and improperly-uninstalled software components. Of course, SpywareRemove.com malware experts easily verified that PC Health Kit's warnings and scans are both fake and don't play any part in detecting any kind of legitimate system errors.

Likewise, PC Health Kit can't optimizer your computer or enhance its performance, and its only real purpose can safely be said to be to steal money by threatening its victims into paying the price of its software registration. If you've already fallen into this trap, you should dispute the charge with the appropriate company before taking any steps to delete PC Health Kit from your computer.

The Cure for the Fake Doctor that Ails Your Computer

Rogue Registry optimizers like PC Health Kit never are advantageous to keep on your computer, and may enable additional attacks besides the one noted above – most commonly, attacks that block critical security software, lower your computer's security settings or hijack your web browser. SpywareRemove.com malware researchers do suggest removing PC Health Kit with all appropriate haste, but also encourage using a suitable anti-malware program that has the best chance of finding and uprooting all of PC Health Kit's components.

PC Health Kit and similar PC threats often are installed by such methods as spam e-mail attachments, fake online scanners and drive-by-download exploits. The latter, in particular, do not necessarily show any symptoms before installing their malicious software, and maintaining all appropriate web-browsing security features should be acknowledged as one of the main ways of avoiding a source of a PC Health Kit infection.

Technical Details

File System Modifications

Tutorials: If you wish to learn how to remove malware components manually, you can read the tutorials on how to find malware, kill unwanted processes, remove malicious DLLs and delete other harmful files. Always be sure to back up your PC before making any changes.

The following files were created in the system:

%PROGRAMFILES%\PC Health Kit\PCHKReminder.exe

File name: PCHKReminder.exe
Size: 330.19 KB (330192 bytes)
MD5: 70ad9606000f148689e3a917d922a078
Detection count: 5,387
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %PROGRAMFILES%\PC Health Kit
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: December 28, 2018

C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-3015829596-1507154211-1980195923-1001\$RKHR1R2\PCHKReminder.exe

File name: PCHKReminder.exe
Size: 1.08 MB (1083704 bytes)
MD5: cff8733d649b39b9760260a626bd4a47
Detection count: 5,132
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-3015829596-1507154211-1980195923-1001\$RKHR1R2\PCHKReminder.exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 1, 2022

C:\Program Files (x86)\PC Health Kit Pro\PCHKProLauncher.exe

File name: PCHKProLauncher.exe
Size: 199.48 KB (199480 bytes)
MD5: 3ef559ae5febd65b415eeb0828f84534
Detection count: 4,815
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\PC Health Kit Pro\PCHKProLauncher.exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: July 29, 2023

C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-3015829596-1507154211-1980195923-1001\$RKHR1R2\PCHKSmartScan.exe

File name: PCHKSmartScan.exe
Size: 489.27 KB (489272 bytes)
MD5: 8ca0f4f4512bac82c5a4a12f26310f7f
Detection count: 4,726
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-3015829596-1507154211-1980195923-1001\$RKHR1R2\PCHKSmartScan.exe
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: March 1, 2022

%PROGRAMFILES%\PC Health Kit\PCHKSmartScan.exe

File name: PCHKSmartScan.exe
Size: 263.63 KB (263632 bytes)
MD5: 62ebd8d8d07a8f23e9399be4ef34edaa
Detection count: 4,548
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Path: %PROGRAMFILES%\PC Health Kit
Group: Malware file
Last Updated: June 5, 2013

Registry Modifications

The following newly produced Registry Values are:

File name without pathPC Health Kit.lnkHKEY..\..\..\..{RegistryKeys}Software\PC Health KitSOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\PCHealthKit_RASAPI32SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Tracing\PCHealthKit_RASMANCSHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\[APPLICATION]\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall..{Uninstaller}PC Health Kit_is1

Additional Information

The following directories were created:

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\PC Health Kit%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\PC Health Kit%APPDATA%\PC Health Kit%PROGRAMFILES%\PC Health Kit%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\PC Health Kit