Detection Details

PUP.Optional.DriveTheLife

ThreatDown is now the name of the Malwarebytes line of business products. References to Malwarebytes below reflect the amazing technology used to first identify the threat.

Short bio

GUI Driver Talent

Type of infection

PUP.Optional.DriveTheLife is a “driver updater”. These so-called “system optimizers” often use intentional false positives to convince users that their systems have problems. Then they try to sell you their software, claiming it will remove these problems. PUP.Optional.DriveTheLife is often installed by users themselves in an attempt to optimize their computer’s performance.

Malicious behavior

installing Driver Talent

and they may see additional software offered to install.

When installed users can see this entry in their list of installed Programs and Features:

and these icons in their startmenu, their taskbar and on their desktop:

 

Protection

and by blocking traffice to their domain:

Malwarebytes blocks the domain drivethelife.com

Home remediation

Malwarebytes can detect and remove PUP.Optional.DriveTheLife without further user interaction.

  • Please download Malwarebytes to your desktop.
  • Double-click MBSetup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.
  • When your Malwarebytes for Windows installation completes, the program opens to the Welcome to Malwarebytes screen.
  • Click on the Get started button.
  • Click Scan to start a Threat Scan.
  • Click Quarantine to remove the found threats.
  • Reboot the system if prompted to complete the removal process.

Add an exclusion

Should users wish to keep this program and exclude it from being detected in future scans, they can add the program to the exclusions list. Hereā€™s how to do it.

  • Open Malwarebytes for Windows.
  • Click the Detection History
  • Click the Allow List
  • To add an item to the Allow List, click Add.
  • Select the exclusion type Allow a file or folder and use the Select a folder button to select the main folder for the software that you wish to keep.
  • Repeat this for any secondary files or folder(s) that belong to the software.

If you want to allow the program to connect to the Internet, for example to fetch updates, also add an exclusion of the type Allow an application to connect to the internet and use the Browse button to select the file you wish to grant access.