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Time for antivirus providers to catch on that these things can make a computer unusable as a virus and their delivery methods are just as  illegitimate. These are not toolbars supporting freeware authors. They are targetted attacks and exploitations of inexperiened users.

 

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/08/download-me-ii-removing-the-remnants-of-the-webs-most-dangerous-search-terms/

 

"According to McAfee’s 2008 The Web’s Most Dangerous Search Terms, “free” fell into the highest search term risk category. And my previous search for free stuff on the Internet ended ugly. What did I do? I searched for free things, clicked the top links, and initiated the first download on each page. This—no surprise—led me to download a bunch of adware and malware, what McAfee coined as Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs). For instance, a search for "free music downloads" (the worst search query from round one) left my desktop littered with them. From my download notes and desktop count, I went from three to 19 programs while adding six Firefox plugins and 12 extensions that made my browser a cluttered array of toolbars and icons. My computer was dogged with PUPs—point proven. Now this was my mess to clean up. Could I do anything to fix my computer, and was it even worth it?

 

Installations from downloading "free music" results:

 

Six Firefox plugins: Conduit Plugin 7.0.0.3, Exent AOD Gecko Plugin 7.0.0.3, GameTreatWidget 8.1.57.0, Google Update 1.3.21.145, Microsoft Windows Media Player Firefox Plugin 1.0.0.8, Shockwave Flash 11.7.700.202

 

12 Firefox extensions: Default Tab 2.0, Frostwire Toolbar 12.42738, MixiDJ V30 10.16.300.3, Mp3skull Toolbar initial.rev194, New Tab 5.0.0.7281, QuickShare Widget 1.1, SavetheChildren App By We-Care.com 4.1.20.1, SearchDonkey 2.6.14, Search-Results Toolbar 1.2.0.0, SelectionLinks 1.5, Yahoo Toolbar 2.5.7.20130322105505, Yontoo 1.20.02

 

16 programs downloaded: BearShare, Torch (Internet Browser), 24x7 Help, Free Ride Games / 7 Wonders II, FrostWire 5.5.6, Google Drive, Groove-Stream, Adobe Flash, iTunes (didn't install; it was a 32-bit version on 64-bit Windows), iMesh, inTuneMP3, PC Fix Speed, PC Optimizer Pro, SpeedItup Free, The Weather Channel App, WeatherBug"

I would love to see all these PUPs disappear tomorrow and would love to see most vendors remove them.However,unfortunately,there are also some legal matters which may prevent a/v vendors from removing them.I am guessing that is why most pup's aren't detected and removed.I have heard of several a/v vendors having been sued,recalling Emsisoft being one of them.Most A/V vendors simply cannot afford the expense of litigation on a large scale.
We have been making an effort to detect more Potentially Unwanted Applications (PUAs) but many of these applications fall into gray areas, and we do have certain criteria that must be met before we detect an application - we can't just detect any product we don't like. I often joke that if we detected apps based on simply not liking it, Windows ME and Vista would be considered PUAs ;)

 

We have been putting some focus into educating users on how to avoid PUAs via our blog, so look for more blog posts on the topic. 

 

-Dan
@ wrote:

I often joke that if we detected apps based on simply not liking it, Windows ME and Vista would be considered PUAs

 

I like that idea, I agree.

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