How to remove DriveTheLife (Removal Guide)

How to remove DriveTheLife (Removal Guide)

DriveTheLife (also known as Drive The Life or DTL) is program we were ‘randomly’ asked to review. Our DriveTheLife review found that the program is legitimate, however it is not a necessity and it did cause a few issues for us. The first issue we noticed is that the program corrupted our graphics card. A pop-up alert notified us that there is “no AMD graphics card installed, or the AMD drive is not functioning properly.” Afterwards, we had to install a new AMD driver. When we attempted to open Adobe Photoshop we are also met by a message that says “Photoshop has encountered a problem with the display driver.

DriveTheLife

Upon search we found that DriveTheLife has a questionable online reputation. A scan with VirusTotal concluded that ESET (ESET-NOD32), a reputable security vendor and product has the program file dtlabroad_setup.exe detected as a variant of Win32/Packed.VMProtect.ABD.

Drive The Life

DriveTheLife will run every time Windows is started. This is common for many programs, but we found that this caused a high amount of CPU and memory usage, which ultimately rendered our machine useless with continuous black-screens.

We have also found that DriveTheLife may be difficult for computer users to uninstall. The program initially refused to manually uninstall from our machine. A message that said “DTL6 is detected running on your PC and can’t uninstall, please exit the running program and retry” appeared when we attempted to manually eradicate the program. In order to remove DriveTheLife we had to end various processes, some of which were labeled in the Chinese language.

DriveTheLife virus

After the DriveTheLife review we have conlucded that his program is not a necessity, it adds no value to a computer system, and can be a nuisance for the unsuspecting computer user. We assume that in the future this program will be detected by more Antivirus and Anti-Malware products as a potentially unwanted program (PUP).

How to remove DriveTheLife

1. Access Windows Start Menu and navigate to the Control Panel (on Windows 8, right click the bottom left corner to gain access to the Windows 8 Start Menu. Windows 8 may also select Programs and Features).

2. In Windows Control Panel, click Uninstall a program or Add and remove a program in the Programs section.

DriveTheLife virus removal

3. In the list of installed programs, search for DriveTheLife. Once the program is located, double click the program or select it with your mouse and click the Uninstall button. If a “DTL6 is detected running on your PC and can’t uninstall, please exit the running program and retry” message appears, open Windows Task Manager and end the DriveTheLife processes (shown in the video below) and attempt to uninstall the program again.

4. Restart your computer.

If you are still experiencing issues removing potential DriveTheLife malware after using this removal guide we recommend to perform a system restore/recovery or a reset/refresh for Windows 8.

Sean Doyle

Sean is a distinguished tech author and entrepreneur with over 20 years of extensive experience in cybersecurity, privacy, malware, Google Analytics, online marketing, and various other tech domains. His expertise and contributions to the industry have been recognized in numerous esteemed publications. Sean is widely acclaimed for his sharp intellect and innovative insights, solidifying his reputation as a leading figure in the tech community. His work not only advances the field but also helps businesses and individuals navigate the complexities of the digital world.

5 Responses

  1. Ian says:

    Another to check for is DriverTalent, wasn’t in my installed programs list but found it in C:\Program Files (x86)\OSTotoSoft. I ran the uninstaller and that removed it.

  2. john ayres says:

    Malwarebytes detects outgoing requests from drivethelife at switchon and blocks. However I have nothing like drivethelife, dtl, chinese etc in my list of programs and so cannot remove in this way

  3. Frank says:

    Thanks for the tip about the task manager showing Chinese characters. Would not have realized they were part of the Drivethelife program. So far have been using it without any problems, but if in time it does need to be removed, now know to look for those Chinese characters. rgds

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.