adwcleaner.exe and Malware and Nuissanceware such as Babylon

[choro]

Babylon and such malware are pretty intrusive and hard to get rid of. In
desparation I tried *adwcleaner* which, touch wood, did the job in no
time, clearing out a lot more nuissanceware such as add-ons and
extensions to Google Chrome etc.

For the moment I can't see any ill effects of running *adwcleaner.exe*
but would like to hear from others who have used this freeware.

 

[Paul]

Babylon and such malware are pretty intrusive and hard to get rid of. In
desparation I tried *adwcleaner* which, touch wood, did the job in no
time, clearing out a lot more nuissanceware such as add-ons and
extensions to Google Chrome etc.

For the moment I can't see any ill effects of running *adwcleaner.exe*
but would like to hear from others who have used this freeware.

Bleepingcomputer lists it in their download section.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

"Please note that Antivir Webguard uses ASK Toolbar as part of its
web security. If you remove ASK by using Adwcleaner, Antivir Webguard
will no longer work properly. Therefore, if you use this program please
use the instructions below to access the options screen where you
should enable /DisableAskDetections before using AdwCleaner."

I take it then, a person just dumps their Antivir Webguard ?

Paul

 

[Dave Cohen]

Babylon and such malware are pretty intrusive and hard to get rid of. In
desparation I tried *adwcleaner* which, touch wood, did the job in no
time, clearing out a lot more nuissanceware such as add-ons and
extensions to Google Chrome etc.

For the moment I can't see any ill effects of running *adwcleaner.exe*
but would like to hear from others who have used this freeware.

Certain programs such as Babylon, Conduit, mixidj and incredibar are not
really viruses or malware, which is why many utilities don't flag them.
They should, because once invited in (by choice or accident), they refuse
to leave even when politely asked to do so via uninstall. Mixidj might be
liked by some. What some of these toolbars etc can do is point you to bad
websites. I'm pretty sure I picked up bad stuff by not being sufficiently
careful when downloading via CNET. My advice is to avoid third party
downloading sites, if you have no alternative, being very careful on what
you check or uncheck.

 

[SC Tom]

Certain programs such as Babylon, Conduit, mixidj and incredibar are not
really viruses or malware, which is why many utilities don't flag them.
They should, because once invited in (by choice or accident), they refuse
to leave even when politely asked to do so via uninstall. Mixidj might be
liked by some. What some of these toolbars etc can do is point you to bad
websites. I'm pretty sure I picked up bad stuff by not being sufficiently
careful when downloading via CNET. My advice is to avoid third party
downloading sites, if you have no alternative, being very careful on what
you check or uncheck.

I was surprised when it also marked the pdfforge folder in appdata/roaming.
The only thing in it are my PDF Architect settings.
Conduit I can almost understand; that was installed when I installed the
YouTube Downloader. No toolbar associated with it (I choose to NEVER install
any toolbar), and it doesn't show in Programs and Features, but I have never
noticed it running.

I liked the speed in which adwcleaner ran, but I haven't followed through on
the Delete function. Does it offer a chance to pick and choose, or does it
just delete what it has found? Does it offer to make a backup that can be
restored later of the deleted items? The documentation on their site is in
French, and (probably because I didn't accept a cookie) won't change to
English from the menu.

 

[Dave]

I was surprised when it also marked the pdfforge folder in
appdata/roaming. The only thing in it are my PDF Architect settings.
Conduit I can almost understand; that was installed when I installed the
YouTube Downloader. No toolbar associated with it (I choose to NEVER
install any toolbar), and it doesn't show in Programs and Features, but
I have never noticed it running.

I liked the speed in which adwcleaner ran, but I haven't followed
through on the Delete function. Does it offer a chance to pick and
choose, or does it just delete what it has found? Does it offer to make
a backup that can be restored later of the deleted items? The
documentation on their site is in French, and (probably because I didn't
accept a cookie) won't change to English from the menu.

I didn't see any such option, but it does display a list of what it would
delete. You could print this, then manually delete. The only fly in the
ointment is all those weird alpha-numeric keys, mystery keys I call them.
I suppose you could just run regedit and take a look to find out more.
Personally I hate the registry and much prefer the linux way of doing
things.

 

[SC Tom]

I didn't see any such option, but it does display a list of what it would
delete. You could print this, then manually delete. The only fly in the
ointment is all those weird alpha-numeric keys, mystery keys I call them.
I suppose you could just run regedit and take a look to find out more.
Personally I hate the registry and much prefer the linux way of doing
things.

Thanks for the reply.
I don't mind editing the registry; been doing that since Win95 The keys
that were shown were just pointers to the installation and uninstall paths.
On mine, one of the paths points to iSyncConduit, which is a valid file for
iPod/iTunes. I guess because it has the word "conduit" in it, the program
marked it.

I guess it's a good double-check program to use in conjunction with other
AV/AM programs, but as with any of them, I like to research the findings
before blatantly deleting what is found.