Driver Tonic may not deserve your trustTest & ReviewThe installation processEvaluation of the functionalityUninstall stepsVirusTotal report: Is Driver Tonic safe?Things to do if Driver Tonic won’t uninstall
Driver Tonic is advertised as “advanced driver updater software” and “the best driver updater programmed to enhance the performance of your system.” However, we doubt that these statements are trustworthy. To begin with, we’d like to point out that it is a paid product, which costs $9.95/monthly or cheaper if you purchase the subscription for a longer period instantly. It also promises to include web protection and invalid registry scan with your purchase. However, it seems that the majority of users who ended up with this application on their windows cannot remember even looking for Driver Tonic download. Therefore, questions about its safety and distribution methods arise quickly.
Threat Summary
If you came here because you remember installing and now cannot uninstall Driver Tonic or whether you are looking for information about its safety, continue reading the in-depth review below. We have also added a comprehensive removal guide at the end.
Test & Review
The installation process
We have decided to give Driver Tonic a go on a completely up-to-date and clean Windows system which one of our geeks uses daily. The first thing we noticed is an ad for Win Tonic. Annoying, to say at least. We declined this offer. Interestingly, the next ad suggests installing Avast Antivirus. We decline this offer as well and hope to proceed to the installation of the actual product we requested. Finally, the installation starts and finishes quickly enough. Of course, we receive the first pop-up with a 20% discount offer if we decide to upgrade to a paid version. The next thing that happens is Windows blocks dtn.exe process with a red User Account Control warning, saying that it was blocked for our protection. Doesn’t look like a safe app to run at all. The next thing we noticed is a complete computer slowdown. Whenever we try to click on Driver Tonic icon in the menu bar, it simply freezes. Again, very annoying.
Evaluation of the functionality
Once we manage to get this app up and running, it starts scanning the system. Surprise – once the Driver Tonic scan reaches 25% completion, we receive an ad urging us to upgrade to Pro version, otherwise, we’ll be able to scan and fix only a quarter of the system and problems. For an inexperienced computer user, it can be hard to decide, especially because we still do not know the system status. The software may display pop-ups informing about outdated drivers, and you must be aware that some of them can be false-positives. Remember that you can always check and update your drivers for free via Windows Device Manager, and you definitely do not need to pay money to do that. However, if you find using automatic programs useful, make sure you choose reliable ones and download them from trustworthy online sources only.
Uninstall steps
We decided to remove Driver Tonic from the computer. In fact, we didn’t have any problems with that. All we had to do was:
VirusTotal report: Is Driver Tonic safe?
Checking Driver Tonic executive file on VirusTotal, online malware-detection and analysis tool, brought us quite interesting results. Analyzing them gave us a brief idea about the program. Driver Tonic is recognized and detected by 4 security programs and mostly identified as a potentially unwanted application. Therefore, it cannot be called a virus as it does not carry out malicious tasks on the computer system. However, as mentioned earlier, it might display quite dishonest pop-up messages that can influence your decision to buy the Pro version of the driver update tool. Therefore, the best way to keep yourself safe and sound is to keep this software away from your PC.
Things to do if Driver Tonic won’t uninstall
Driver Tonic removal can become a complicated task for inexperienced computer users. If you have a hard time uninstalling this quite useless app, check our tips below.
Before removing the program via Control Panel, open Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del), select Driver Tonic, and click End Task. Then uninstall the program via Control panel.Make sure you’re logged in as administrator before removing the program.If you can’t uninstall the application in normal mode, try doing it in Safe Mode.After uninstalling the applications, check your browsers for suspicious extensions. The driver updater could have installed Ad Blocker Pro for you, as it launches a guide on how to uninstall it after Driver Tonic removal.
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Remove Driver Tonic from Windows
Windows 10/8.1/8 users Click on the Windows logo to open Windows menu. In search, type control panel and select the matching result. Then go to Programs and Features. Windows 7 users First, open Windows menu by clicking on the icon in the lower left corner of the screen. Then go to Control Panel and find section called Programs. Click on the Uninstall a program option under it. Windows XP users In Windows XP, click Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs. Uninstall unwanted programs Once in Programs and Features, look through the list of installed programs. You can click on Installed on tab to sort the programs by their installation date. Right-click on suspicious programs you can’t remember installing and choose Uninstall. Follow instructions provided by the Uninstall Wizard, click Next and finally Finish to uninstall the unwanted program from your PC.
Remove Driver Tonic from Google Chrome Remove suspicious Chrome extensions Change Start Page settings Change default search settings Remove push notifications from Chrome If you want to get rid of the annoying ads and so-called push-notifications viruses, you must identify their components and clean your browser. You can easily remove ads from Chrome by following these steps: Reset Google Chrome browser
Remove Driver Tonic from Mozilla Firefox Remove unwanted add-ons from Firefox Change Firefox Homepage Alter preferences in Firefox Remove annoying push notifications from Firefox Suspicious sites that ask to enable push notifications gain access to Mozilla’s settings and can deliver intrusive advertisements when browsing the Internet. Therefore, you should remove access to your browser by following these simple steps: Reset Mozilla Firefox
Remove Driver Tonic from Microsoft Edge Remove suspicious extensions: Change MS Edge Start Page and default search engine: Turn off push notifications in Edge If you keep receiving pop-up ads or other promotional content while browsing on Microsoft Edge, your browser might be corrupted by a potentially unwanted program (PUP). You have to clean it — follow these easy instructions: Clear browsing data
Remove Driver Tonic from Safari Uninstall suspicious Safari extensions Change Safari Homepage and default search engine Remove push notifications on Safari Some suspicious websites can try to corrupt your Safari by asking to enable push notifications. If you have accidentally agreed, your browser will be flooded with various intrusive advertisements and pop-ups. You can get rid of them by following this quick guide: Reset Safari
Remove Driver Tonic from Internet Explorer TIP: If you are still using IE, we strongly advise using Microsoft Edge or a different browser because Microsoft is no longer providing technical or security support for IE browser. Remove suspicious extensions from IE Change default search provider and remove suspicious ones Change IE Home Page Block pop-up notifications on Internet Explorer Suspicious websites can gain access to your Internet Explorer browser through push notifications. If you enable them even by accident, you will start receiving numerous annoying ads and other advertising content while browsing. The easiest way to remove push-notification viruses is by performing the following steps: Reset Internet Explorer
Alternative software recommendations
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