The other night I did something I've done dozens of times over the years. I went, after a bit of hunting about and deciding, to download a program file from CNet.com. Always cool no viruses blah blah.
So I am half watching and I note the extra step, download this toolbar, grrr... I dodge that one and continue. All good methinks. But.... I check into assorted sites and suddenly I am seeing blue links popping up everywhere. Little offers to buy this or win that, Ack followed by a little muttered swearing. Three separate scans show nothing but I discover a name "Coupon Companion". A bit more hunting about I find a reference to an addon. I check. I'd already deleted the program file and checked the registry. But still... more swearing.
So it seems that in the download process somehow I got an unasked for, unwanted and unauthorised (well I believed so) AddOn in Firefox. Wandered into AddOn Manager and deleted it there, voila, gone. But I am not impressed so I will not use that download site again.
So kiddies, just a heads up, do be careful huh. Medium threat, no great harm I think but still, mutter, mutter. Watch where you step, there's bad pet owners everywhere.
Kristina
Comments
Downloaded programs
Greetings
Whenever you download programs, even from reliable sources, you do need to keep a check on what the options are during installation.
I seldom want any extra toolbars that are made available.
Brian
I've had that happen, but ...
... even worse, I've very carefully clicked off the default to load Google's Chrome and toolbars, and still had them load and become my default browser. Then I've had to remove them and rest to Firefox, and worse, find it had destroyed many of my Firefox settings so I had to set it up all over again. Grrrr.
I've had the Yahoo updater download McAfee after unclicking it, but at least, it didn't install it, so I just had to send the install file to the recycle bin.
I've also had other programs try to add their toolbars and needed to use Toolbar Cleaner ( www.toolbarcleaner.com/ ) to get rid of them.
Holly
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
me too
I got that too but I can't find the add on anywhere. What is it called? I looked online and it's suppose to by yountu or something, but I don't see it.
Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)
Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life
Been there, done that...
Got the tee-shirt that says "Gotcha"
I had that happen so often, I've become adept at using add-on manager. I've even added some things that didn't do what I thought they should and had to delete them. Some things I've wanted didn't seem to allow me the option of not adding another tool-bar so I had to let it be added and then delete.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Kristina, that's why
I never download stuff.
May Your Light Forever Shine
and then you find
a simple update like adobe flash that brings in a toolbar, and trying to make a default browser, and a bunch of other stuff and there is no reference or mention in any of the update notices or the permissions until the install is almost done. Then I had to go into control panel and delete a bunch of crap.
Companion?
...more like the annoying relative that won't leave when the party is over. We didn't download at all and we still ended up with the coupon thingy AND a phantom browser that attaches itself to Google. None of it appeared in the control panel software list and each time we deleted it from Google, it came back with a vengeance. Even with system restore, it followed the hard drive 'back in time' and happily popped up once again.
We finally got rid of it rather serendipitously when the computer crash. We had to re-install Windows XP, and now we're 'coupon-less' once again. Yay!!!!! Oh yeah...we lost six years worth of accumulated but beloved junk in the process along with all of the photos and music.... BACK UP your stuff??? Oopsies!
Love, Andrea Lena
If you can afford it....
Acronis True Image has a great feature called "Try and Decide." We have this on my autistic son's pc - he is always downloading games which often have these kinds of "add-on" baggage. With T&D you turn it on and it snapshots the current config. Every morning when I boot it for him I roll it back to the previous image which is usually clean and then start up T&D. Occasionally something gets by when he turns it off on his own but I have other back-up measures to completely reimage the system if I can't uninstall something. But for most of these annoyances, a simple reboot/rollback works. True Image does have its own backup system which we don't use.
The only problem is that it runs $40-$50 USD, but if you can afford it, I think it is well worth it for some.
Jamie