What is PluginProtect.exe?
OKITSPACE is a browser add-on that inserts advertising on web pages that the user visits. The ads may be inserted on web sites that does not have any form of advertising to begin with. During my testing, the inserted ads were labeled ads not by this site
.
If you have OKITSPACE installed on your machine, you may see connections to addr.okitspace.com, open.okitspace.com and ads.okitspace.com due to the inserted ads.
The main files of the OKITSPACE software are OKitSpace.dll, utilsDll.dll and PluginProtect.exe.
The OKITSPACE software has an entry in the Control Panel's Add/Remove programs dialog, however as shown on the official OKITSPACE web site, the entry is not named OKITSPACE, but "BrowserProtect". When I tested the uninstaller it did not remove the OKITSPACE software: OKITSPACE remained in Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Chrome.
The first time I tested the OKITSPACE software it failed during the installation, with the error message: OKitSpace: Complete fail.
which resulted in Internet Explorer stuck in a state where it could not be used for browsing, nor could I remove the OKITSPACE add-on due to the "Managed add-ons" menu item was grayed out.
I've posted a video at YouTube which shows how I solved that problem by removing OKITSPACE with FreeFixer.
http://youtu.be/d--59vBaLHk
If you have additional information about the file, please share it with the FreeFixer users by posting a comment at the bottom of this page.
Vendor and version information [?]
The following is the available information on PluginProtect.exe:
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Product name | PluginProtect |
| File description | PluginProtect |
| Internal name | PluginProtect.exe |
| Original filename | PluginProtect.exe |
| Legal copyright | Copyright © 2013 |
| Product version | 1.0.0.1 |
| File version | 1.0.0.1 |
Here's a screenshot of the file properties when displayed by Windows Explorer:
| Product name | PluginProtect |
| File description | PluginProtect |
| Internal name | PluginProtect.exe |
| Original filename | PluginProtect.exe |
| Legal copyright | Copyright © 2013 |
| Product version | 1.0.0.1 |
| File version | 1.0.0.1 |
Digital signatures [?]
PluginProtect.exe is not signed.
VirusTotal report
None of the 48 anti-virus programs at VirusTotal detected the PluginProtect.exe file.
Folder name variants
PluginProtect.exe may also be located in other folders than c:\documents and settings\%USERNAME%\application data\okitspace\protect\. The most common variants are listed below:
- c:\users\%USERNAME%\appdata\roaming\okitspace\protect\
- C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\AppData\Roaming\okitspace\protect\
Other files also named PluginProtect.exe
PluginProtect.exe (20 votes)
Hashes [?]
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| MD5 | a0cd6f7a4f8d5557988ef7523fcef93d |
| SHA256 | dce00514179b6c093f19d58c6c2c3d94fd8ec25f5258647d0fe98c7eb4fd61a1 |
Error Messages
These are some of the error messages that can appear related to pluginprotect.exe:
pluginprotect.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
pluginprotect.exe - Application Error. The instruction at "0xXXXXXXXX" referenced memory at "0xXXXXXXXX". The memory could not be "read/written". Click on OK to terminate the program.
PluginProtect has stopped working.
End Program - pluginprotect.exe. This program is not responding.
pluginprotect.exe is not a valid Win32 application.
pluginprotect.exe - Application Error. The application failed to initialize properly (0xXXXXXXXX). Click OK to terminate the application.
What will you do with the file?
To help other users, please let us know what you will do with the file:
What did other users do?
The poll result listed below shows what users chose to do with the file. 100% have voted for removal. Based on votes from 4 users.
| Votes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Keep | 0 % | 0 | |
| Remove | 100 % | 4 |
NOTE: Please do not use this poll as the only source of input to determine what you will do with the file. Only 4 users has voted so far so it does not offer a high degree of confidence.
Malware or legitimate?
If you feel that you need more information to determine if your should keep this file or remove it, please read this guide.
And now some shameless self promotion ;)
Hi, my name is Roger Karlsson. I've been running this website since 2006. I want to let you know about the FreeFixer program. FreeFixer is a freeware tool that analyzes your system and let you manually identify unwanted programs. Once you've identified some malware files, FreeFixer is pretty good at removing them. You can download FreeFixer here. It runs on Windows 2000/XP/2003/2008/2016/2019/Vista/7/8/8.1/10. Supports both 32- and 64-bit Windows.
If you have questions, feedback on FreeFixer or the freefixer.com website, need help analyzing FreeFixer's scan result or just want to say hello, please contact me. You can find my email address at the contact page.
Comments
Please share with the other users what you think about this file. What does this file do? Is it legitimate or something that your computer is better without? Do you know how it was installed on your system? Did you install it yourself or did it come bundled with some other software? Is it running smoothly or do you get some error message? Any information that will help to document this file is welcome. Thank you for your contributions.
I'm reading all new comments so don't hesitate to post a question about the file. If I don't have the answer perhaps another user can help you.
No comments posted yet.