Vintage Ask toolbar is malware – and we'll kill Jeeves, says Microsoft Older versions of the Ask toolbar, the bane of many a computer user over the years, has been declared persona non grata by Microsoft, and Redmond says its security software will now kill it on sight. In a June 11 update to its Malware Protection Center site, Microsoft states that older versions of the toolbar, which set itself …
THE PROBLEM is that by typing the URL manually its already clear that you know exactly where you want to go. Now the browser instead chooses for you to send to somewhere else and pass all that lovely metadata to a search provider unrelated to where you were going. Whoops.
You never wonder why the search providers are pretty much strutting around like kings of the Internet these days?
I have never understood why Oracle would continue for years to identify itself so blatantly as a sleazy corporation with this cheap, low rent association. I can't imagine that any revenue that it generates makes up for the millions of dollars worth of brand damage that results.
They are the only major corporation I know that pulls this kind of stupid stunt.
"I think Java has now switched to trying to default your home page to yahoo."
Given that the Java run-time has no legitimate interest in your homepage and it is vanishingly unlikely that you will think "Oh, that's a good idea. I've been meaning to pick a better homepage for a while, but this is just the thing.", can we not conclude that this is just trying to trick you into doing something you wouldn't otherwise have done.
So it (this installer) is malware. So why don't any of the AV packages quarantine it on sight? What's the point of an AV package if it doesn't detect one of the most widespread pieces of malware there is?
The current toolbar does not exhibit malware like behavior, therefore ASK is not installing malware. The old toolbar exhibits behavior which is now considered malware, but was not considered malware at the time it was issued. ASK has configured their legitimate toolbar to update automatically. Therefore any toolbar which claims to be ASK and is exhibiting the malware behavior is malware.
So sayeth the marketing drones and lawyers. So let it be done.
You may now return your brain to normal logic mode.
Frankly, why stop with Ask?
Any toolbar (for any browser) that insidiously re-installs and overwrites the homepage should be identified as malware, removed and destroyed. Full stop.
I don't know why something like this wasn't implemented years ago. MS need to be doing everything they can to make everyone's experience with windows as good as possible.
Another useful step would be a bloatware/crapware free certification system for nice clean new PC's... This would ideally also specify how the drive partitions and recovery options should be defined and set up, and also a windows accessory program that allows the user to create a bootable disk/memory stick with either a clean windows install or a re-installable backup of their current state.
But now I'm wandering far off into a fantasy world... But seriously... what if!? How good would that be!!
Yes, just like that, but with improved re-installation options too.
Is the Signature Edition only applicable to PC's that MS sell, what about other vendors? The customer expectation should be that every PC should be sold with the OS set up like this, unless requested otherwise.
"Any toolbar (for any browser) that insidiously re-installs and overwrites the homepage should be identified as malware, removed and destroyed. Full stop."
You aren't being tough enough! How about ....
"Any developer of any toolbar (for any browser) that insidiously re-installs and overwrites the homepage should be identified as malware, removed and destroyed. Full stop."
:)
@ CR's Horse:
You're horse, okay.
Anybody with common sense can clean their system and then make a re-install disk of said clean state. Since Windows 7 Microsoft supplies all the tools needed.
Do it yourself, don't rely on others to do it for you.
And then, you could have spent a couple hundred more and bought a Microsoft Signature machine.
Yeah, that accursed McAfee security scan plus that wants to install after my daily Adobe Flash security update. And like all other McAfee products it is a useless, resource hogging piece of junk. It is almost like a competition at McAfee to see how much they can slow your computer down. It has actually become worse ever since Intel bought them.
"Older versions of software can restrict or limit your control over your search provider. It can prevent you from disabling or modifying your search provider,"
Fair enough...
Now where's the advisory that tells how Windows 10 can restrict or limit your control over your search provider and can prevent make it technically difficult for you to disable or modify your search provider? Or indeed what where and how it searches?
not to mention that pulling the toolbar off was also accompanied in change of legit home page to ... BING
Double standards?
And what about this Windows 10 upgrade nag, forced telemetry/CEIP (all this despite me disabling tasks, removing "updates" etc)?
BTW it was fun Monday when flood of ForeFront sh...t, I mean emails, signaled the end of world (at least for Ask;).
This post has been deleted by its author
I do not really like LINUX yet
however, in the future it might be the only operating system left
that can be configured the way you want it.
so I do see a future for LINUX when it comes to people who care
(mostly data center admins).
average peope do not know how to read maps anymore. without a navigation system they are lost.
SIRI users will not be able to type simple words anymore in less than a couple of years..
Sitting in a cafe they will say "my account number is xxxx and my password is xxx". If you are sitting in a cafe all by yourself and noboby is within hearing distance this might work for a while.
... but not forever
Ahem. "Linux" is not an acronym, nor is it something to be all shouting about.
And no its not the only OS that can be configured properly. All of its peers (the BSD family, and the Unices) are still very much around and still just as flexible and they all have been. Some more so than previously.
Re: Strange.. I agree. Not being a Windows user I have not had the enjoyment of Ask toolbars, but I'm also surprised that Oracle would continue to bundle Java with "extra offers" as it were.
As an Ubuntu user (and Gentoo and slackware before that), I've never seen any sign of this thing, in packages or the download from Oracle. Do you think since they've added it to the OSX version that the Linux installer will get this sooner or later? (Technically, it wouldn't be difficult to install as a firefox extension or add-on.)
When going to Microsoft's "choice" page for search engines, has anyone besides me noticed that people "rated" Google with only 2 stars? Somehow that doesn't seem accurate. Say what you will about Google, but when I have to use Google to find articles on MS Technet because MS's own search engine isn't up to snuff, that says a lot.
Oh yeah, I also kill Ask toolbar and most others on sight. Typically the user is only peripherally aware it was even there and had "no idea how I got it".
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