Stumbled upon ads labeled Ads by Costmin and RightCoupon a few days ago. Here’s a video where I show how to remove the ads:
Here are some CostMin and RightCoupon screenshots:
The offers will pop at the top right corner of your browser and help you save money and time.
Here’s how the RightCoupon pop-up looks like:
How to uninstall it? Easy, remove it from the Programs and Features dialog, or nuke it with FreeFixer.
Found another bundled piece of software today dubbed Jotzey. It is bundled with download from CNet’s download.com:
If you got Jotzey installed on your machine, you’ll see it listed in Firefox add-ons and in the Add/Remove programs dialog.
You can uninstall it using FreeFixer. Check jotzeybho.dll and the firefox@jotzey.net.xpi extension for removal, or use the entry in the Add/Remove programs dialog.
Here’s a demonstration on where I remove Jotzey with FreeFixer:
This morning I was reviewing the new files added into the FreeFixer library. One of the new files was FlowSurf.dll, which currently only Comodo picks up as Application.Win32.Altbrowse.AK. The description, “FlowSurf toolbar” indicates that it is part of an Internet Explorer toolbar.
It’s unclear if flowsurf.dll is part of the FlowSurf software distributed from flowsurf dot net. I tried out that download which installed into Firefox.
The FlowSurf EULA gives more details on the software:
(a) interacts with your Internet browser to create editable, virtual layers that can alter the appearance of underlying Internet websites, as they appear on your computer only (the “FlowSurf Apps Add-On”); (b) incorporates the FlowSurf Apps “FlowSurf” search enhancer on each new web page that is spawned when you open a new Internet browser session (“FlowSurf”); and (c) displays featured FlowSurf search results at the top of the search results page. Where you conduct a search using FlowSurf, you will be showed search results generated by a third party search engine provider as designated by FlowSurf Apps or, where permitted, as selected by you (“Third Party Search Providers”).
If you want to remove FlowSurf, you can do so using FreeFixer. Select fsupd.exe and flowsurf.dll for removal:
Hope this helped you remove FlowSurf.
How did you get FlowSurf on your machine? Please share by posting a comment.
Did you find some software called Site Finder on you machine and wondering what is?
The following screenshot should explain what the Site Finder software does. The installer calls itself “App of the Day” and says the following:
“Site Finder is a browser add-on that suggests web sites related to the one that is currently open.”
You can remove Site Finder with help from FreeFixer or by the Add/Remove programs dialog.
How did you get SiteFinder on your machine? I found it in the “App of the Day” installer as shown above. I also found it in a Softonic download:
Hope this helped you figure out what SiteFinder is.
Found a new adware called Feven yesterday. The screenshot from the installer should give you some insights in what the Feven software does:
There are a few anti-virus programs that detects Feven, with the following names:
Feven can be uninstalled with help from FreeFixer. Here are some of the filenames that I’ve seen the Feven adware use:
You can also try the Feven entry in the Add/Remove programs dialog.
How did Feven find its way into your computer? I found it on a web site which package Feven with third party downloads.
Yesterday I was testing FreeFixer for the v1.09 release and ran into an adware called SerialTrunc. The following screenshot should explain what the software does:
Basically, it shows ads, coupons, etc. Here are some of the detections done by the anti-virus programs:
Once installed, you will see an Internet Explorer and a Firefox add-on installed:
You will also see files such as SerialTruncBho.dll and updateSerialTrunc.exe on your filesystem.
Removal is easy, just check the SerialTrunc files for removal in FreeFixer, or use the Add/Remove programs dialog:
Hope that helped you figure out what SerialTrunc is and how to remove it.
And by the way, how did you get SerialTrunc on your machine?
I’m current working on some code for FreeFixer to repair hijacked Internet shortcuts. I’ve installed a few browsers such as Chrome, Mozilla, Safari and Opera on the lab machine, and then l installed a download that I knew messed around with the shortcuts to the browsers. Typically, the Internet shortcuts on the desktop is modified to launch an unwanted web page instead of the web page that the user wants.
While doing this I found a new adware variant called “HD Streamer“. At the moment, only Vipre is picking up ScriptHost.dll, which is the main file of HD Streamer.
HDStreamer has an entry in the Add/Remove programs dialog. I haven’t tested it but I suppose it works.
I did however test that FreeFixer deleted both ScriptHost.dll and the Mozilla Firefox Extension without any problem.
Now, back to writing that code.
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?
Do you see ads labeled Ads by PassShow on your machine?
Then you got the PassShow adware installed. You may also see pop-ups from the gld.pathticket.net web site.
PassShow is pretty easy to delete with FreeFixer. The following removal instructions will remove PassShow from Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.
That’s it.
How did you get PassShow on your machine? I found it while testing a download from CNet’s Download.com site.
Found another adware program this morning: ShopperPro. If you got this on your machine, you will see ads popping up while browsing. They ads are labeled “by shopper pro“, “Powered by Shopper-Pro” or “brought by ShopperPro“:
You can remove Shopper Pro by checking the following files in FreeFixer’s scan result:
There’s also a Shopper-Pro entry in the Add/Remove programs window in the Control Panel.
I found ShopperPro bundled with a free download. Where did you find ShopperPro? Did you also find it packaged with another download?