I’m currently doing some testing on FreeFixer v1.08 which is planned for release on the 31th of January. As usually before a release I download lots of free downloads, that I know are filled with bundled offers, and make sure FreeFixer can remove the software that was bundled.

During this round of testing I found a bunch of new software or search engines that where added on the computer.

The first find was a bundled search engine called Awesomehp.com that changed a large number of settings in Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Here’s a screenshot of awesomehp’s search engine added to Firefox:

Awesomehp.com was bundled with a download called TV.exe:

If you want to remove awesomehp.com you can do so by checking the awesomehp items in FreeFixer:

There’s also an entry in the Add/Remove programs dialog, named “awesomehp Browser new tab extension“, which I have not tested to see if it works:

I found one setting that FreeFixer did not detect, which was Internet Explorer’s, Chrome’s and Mozilla’s startup icons, which were modified to show awesomehp.com instead of the normal start page. You have to fix this setting manually.

I’ll make sure this scan location is added in a future version of FreeFixer.

The next find was LookingLink, which was bundled with the Trillian download from CNet:

Removing LookingLink with FreeFixer is pretty straightforward. Check lookinglinkbho.dll and the LookingLink Mozilla Firefox extension:

There’s a LookingLink entry in the Add/Remove programs dialog, but I have not tried it:

The third find was something called SubTab, which was also easy to remove. I checked the BHOEnabler.exe, SuptlePluginServiceUpdate.exe and SupTab.dll for removal which successfully remove SupTab from the machine.

There’s an entry for SubTab in the Add/Remove programs dialog:

There’s also another entry in the Add/Remove programs dialog named “IePluginService”:

And some more…

Found two Firefox Extensions, named “Extension_Protected” and “Lightning Speed Dial”. I just checked them for removal in FreeFixer and they were gone.

What about you?

Did you also stumble upon LookingLink, SupTab or Awesomehp,com? Did you remove them? If so, did you try the Add/Remove entries or did you use FreeFixer to remove them?

Found another bundled piece of software today called FreeSoftToday. It opens up a pop-up with free software offers.

These are the main files for FreeSoftToday:

• fst_se_12.exe
• upfst_se_12.exe
• freeSoftToday_widget.exe
• majfst.exe

The FreeSoftToday files are detected by some of the anti-virus programs when I uploaded them to VirusTotal. Here are the detection names:

•  Avast – Win32:Eorezo-CB [PUP] 20131211
• Microsoft – Adware:Win32/EoRezo 20131211
• Malwarebytes – Adware.Tuto4PC 20131211
• ESET-NOD32 – a variant of Win32/Adware.EoRezo.AT 20131211

Here’s a short video tutorial on how to remove FreeSoftToday:

Found another variant of the WebCake adware called Albrechto. As usual it is bundled with free downloads.

If you have Albrechto on your machine, you will see an extension listed in Mozilla Firefox and AlbrechtoBHO.dll loaded into Internet Explorer.

Albrechto can be uninstalled from the Add/Remove programs dialog.

You can also remove Albrechto with FreeFixer. Here’s a video tutorial:

Yesterday I found another adware program called BrowseSmart. BrowseSmart can show various types of ads. During my testing it added a frame on the left side of the web browser window with “Related Searches“.

BrowseSmart is bundled with free downloads. I found it in a program called “File Extractor”. The screenshot also explains what types of ads BrowseSmart can show.

If you have BrowseSmart installed on your machine, you’ll see it listed in Internet Explorer’s and Mozilla Firefox’s extension list:

You will also see BrowseSmartBHO.dll loaded into Internet Explorer.

BrowseSmart can be uninstalled from the Add/Remove programs dialog.

You can also remove BrowseSmart with FreeFixer. Here’s a removal tutorial:

Sorry for not posting or doing any work on the FreeFixer program for the last month. Due to some unexpected events I’ve spent the last 30 days in the hospital with my new born son. Luckily everything is under control and the three of us are back home.

Today I found an adware program called Outobox. It is bundled with downloads from CNET.

The Outobox Terms and Conditions describes the Outobox functionality as shown in the screenshot.

Outobox can show many types of ads, such as search ads, banner ads, text ads, etc.

Unfortunately I’ve not managed to trigger the Outobox ads on my lab machine, therefore no screenshot of the actual ads. I assume the ads are labeled  “Outobox”.

Do you see the Outobox ads on your machine? Please send a screenshot and I’ll update this blog post.

If you have Outobox installed on your machine, you’ll see the Outobox Extension listed in Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer. You’ll also see outoboxbho.dll loaded into Internet Explorer.

Removing Outobox is easy. Just uninstall it from the Add/Remove programs dialog. If the removal fails you can remove Outobox with FreeFixer.

Please let me know what you think about Outobox by posting a comment.

Are you getting a RunDLL error on startup message saying:

There was a problem starting C:\..\Conduit\..\BackgroundContainer.dll

The specified module could not be found.

You are probably getting this error message because the Conduit file, BackgroundContainer.dll, has been removed from your computer, but your system is still configured to run the BackgroundContainer.dll file with the rundll32.exe tool.

You can get rid of this error message by removing the start-up entry in the registry and in the  Windows Task Scheduler. You can also fix the error message with the FreeFixer tool.

I’ve captured a screenshow that shows the two items you need to check for removal in FreeFixer’s scan results. Removing those two items will stop the Run DLL error from popping up during startup.

Did that help you remove the BackgroundContainer.dll RUNDLL error?

By the way, how did you get this error message? Did your anti-virus program remove Conduit’s BackgroundContainer.dll file, or did you remove it manually and forgot the items in the registry and the Task Scheduler?

I’ve added the Google Authorship Markup to the blog this morning. I wonder how long it takes before the rich snippets start appearing in the search results.

Here’s a preview of how the search results will look like:

 Update October 26, 2013: Yeay, the rich snippets have now started to appear in the search results, at least on the start page of the blog.