Beware of SNEAKWARE
Posted on November 18, 2012
Sneakware –Software Transmitted Deception or STD’s for short, are those poorly displayed tick boxes (which are always ticked by default) when you go to install (usually) free programs that install ‘Extras’
Mainly search bars – which installed, remove all of your custom home pages and add their own website as your only home page and change your default search engine as well.
These immoral programs can also track your browsing/searching habits as well as other dastardly evil doings .
One insidious sneakware – although having its own uninstaller – failed to uninstall and even when using its dedicated tool to remove botched uninstalls – Firefox still came up with its website on incorrect websites (instead of its default search engine). The fix needed was to dive down into the depths of the config file and edit the keyword.url file within Firefox
I will not name these STD’s here – if you would like to know just ASK.
One way around this deception is to use ninite.com – they have a lot of useful freeware programs – just tick (yes – you have to tick) the ones you want and it creates one installer – that removes any STD’s that come with them. I know of one program that requested Ninite.com to remove it’s installer – I do wonder why?
So when installing new programs ALWAYS read carefully the install instructions to avoid these unwanted programs – and untick those boxes.
Comments are currently closed.