Hello Mexstan and welcome to the Webroot Community!

 

Aartemis to my knowledge is not a virus.  It is what is commonly referred to as a PUA (Potentially Unwanted Application), and not a virus.  While you may not like such software, they do not have any actual malware payload or destructive action.  Please see This Thread and This One  for a discussion regarding what a PUA is, as well as Webroot's historical postiion regarding this.  DO note that Webroot is beginning to detact and remove some of the more difficult to remove PUA's.

 

I am guessing that the 'bunch of malware' on your computer would all actually be classified not as malware, but as PUA's.  Most of the time, PUA's are installed with your permission, they are not spread automatically as a virus is.  The key to avoiding them is to review, with a high degree of caution, all software installers that you run and always choose to use the advanced install options as they 'piggy back' onto other applications as 'sponsored sotware'.

 

Often you can remove these PUA's via the Control Panel or by managing your browser add-on's/extensions.  In some cases, a 3rd party uninstaller such as Revo Uninstaller, may help as well.  (Revo and other software removal tools can be found on This Thread)

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Hello Mexstan and  Welcome to the Webroot Community Forums!

 

David is correct it's not really an infection it's just Crapware you have to watch what you install also and uncheck any unwanted add-ons such as this during install. See Quote below!

 

"This in itself is not considered malicious as there are many legitimate programs that change these settings as well. What is considered malicious, though, is that it will also append the argument http://aartemis.com/ to random Windows shortcuts on your desktop and your Windows Start Menu.

The Aartemis.com homepage will display advertisements and sponsored links in your search results, and may collect search terms from your search queries. The Aartemis.com hijack is used to boost advertising revenue, as in the use of blackhat SEO, to inflate a site’s page ranking in search results.

Aartemis.com it’s technically not a virus, but it does exhibit plenty of malicious traits, such as rootkit capabilities to hook deep into the operating system, browser hijacking, and in general just interfering with the user experience. The industry generally refers to it as a “PUP,” or potentially unwanted program.

Aartemis.com is an ad-supported (users may see additional banner, search, pop-up, pop-under, interstitial and in-text link advertisements) cross web browser plugin for Internet Explorer (BHO) and Firefox/Chrome (plugin) and distributed through various monetization platforms during installation. The browser extension includes various features that will modify the default or custom settings of the browser including the home page, search settings and in some cases will modify Internet Explorer’s load time threshold, place a lock file within Firefox to prevent competing software from changing its settings as well as disable the browser’s Content Security Policy in order to allow for cross site scripting of the plugin."

 

Daniel



 

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Thanks for the response.  Yes, I agree that Aartemis and similar is not a virus, but is still annoying.  If any of this garbage was installed it was without my direct approval.  Have tried to remove as much as I can via the Control panel, but ones like Aartemis that piggyback on Yahoo have me beat because I can'e even find them.  Have used AVG for years, but that does not even see this stuff, so tried Webroot in desperation.  Still feel like my money has been wasted.  Sigh.  Oh well, will continue to plug away at this amd hope that I stumble on something soon.

Thanks again for the answer.

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I'm sending you a PM!

 

Daniel

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Hi Daniel,  exactly!!!!!  Aartemis has taken over my Yahoo page and changed sundry settings in my computer.  Just hate this!  Hope I can get rid of this soon and all other Crapware (good term) that has somehow landed on me.

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It's my understanding that Webroot support will help you remove any components or reset settings of your computer if the uninstallers for the unwanted software do not work. I guess although they may not classify these things as malware, if they're messing up your machine they will help you out.

 

Not sure if that's a policy somewhere, @ ?

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Hi Daniel, 

Thanks again for the links.  Just a quick update to let you know that this has been a step by step fight and took me constant tries all day yesterday.   I have managed to delete Aartemis, but there is still some junk to clear up.  The links you supplied would not work for various resons and I had to find other ways to get the programs started.  The JRT was a fight too, but keeps on hanging up when it gets to the registry.  Even let it run overnight, but it was still hung up.  Stopped it and ran it again with the same result.  Today tried to run AdwCleaner again, but so far cannot get it to run.  I can install the program, but as soon as I hit RUN, the program disappears.  Will try other things when I get some time.  VERY frustrating!!!!!

 

One of my problems is that I am trying to do this from China and unless I use my VPN I end up with a screen full of Chinese garbage.  My VPN is set for the states.

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Thanks for the update the only other thing I can suggest is Submit a Support Ticket and ask them to help you remove the remnants and please let us know the outcome.

 

Thanks,

 

Daniel

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THanks.  Will continue the fight when I have more time next weekend, but if that fails, will consider a ticket.

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@ wrote:

THanks.  Will continue the fight when I have more time next weekend, but if that fails, will consider a ticket.

Yeah.. just because something has no malware payload and may be considered a PUA does NOT mean that it will always be easy to remove 😞  Recently, with the 2014 version, Webroot has started detecting some of these, and hopefully they will target more and more of them!

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