Windows 10 Installation/Upgrade/Update Removed Spybot

If your copy of Spybot was not reinstalled correctly during the upgrade/update process to Windows 10, you can uninstall and reinstall Spybot using the instructions below to see if this solves your issue.

During the upgrade process, Windows 10 may detect Spybot as an incompatible program. It may move important files for Spybot, which will cause Spybot to stop functioning correctly.

There are two ways to fix this issue:

1. Move the important files back to the Spybot Program Folder:

   • The files can be found in the folder:
     C:\Windows.old\Spybot – Search & Destroy 2
   • To fix Spybot, please move the contents of this folder to the Spybot program folder at:
     C:\Program Files (x86)\Spybot – Search & Destroy 2
     or for 32-bit PCs:
     C:\Program Files\Spybot – Search & Destroy 2
   • The “Windows.old” Spybot folder (C:\Windows.old\Spybot – Search & Destroy 2) can then be deleted.
   • If Spybot is still not functioning correctly after performing these steps and updating Spybot, please download and install Spybot 2.5 from here. This will overwrite your currently installed copy of Spybot.

2. Delete the folder, and reinstall Spybot:

   • Please delete the folder:
     C:\Windows.old\Spybot – Search & Destroy 2
   • Download and reinstall Spybot 2.4 from here.
   • If Spybot is still not functioning correctly after performing these steps and updating Spybot, please download and install Spybot 2.5 from here. This will overwrite your currently installed copy of Spybot.

A simple way to check if your PC is 32 or 64-bit is to check if your “C:” drive contains a folder named “Program Files (x86)”. If it does, it is 64-bit.
A 32-bit PC will only contain a folder named “Program Files” (without the “(x86)” at the end), while a 64-bit PC will contain both folders.