Beware: AVG9.0 hijacks Firefox
Tony Raven
Firefox and overwrites about:config to force the use of Yahoo as a
search engine. It also installs a Search toolbar that writes out your
current search engine choice and replaces it with Yahoo* but that is
relatively easily disabled. The about:config changes OTOH need some
knowledge and about:config editing to reverse. If you are happy with
Firefox and your choice of search engine do not install AVG9.0 unless
you want a lot of work getting Firefox back to how you like it. One
might ask whether there are any other less obvious changes AVG have
taken the opportunity to introduce into the browser or other programs
without consent or user awareness.
Tony
*Actually it gives you a choice in the options of Yahoo or those well
known (NOT!) Chinese, Czech and Russian search engines Baidu, WebHledani
and Yandex.
Arne Hamre
I just installed AVG9.0 and have NO problems with Yahoo toolbar being
forced on me. Of course I chose non-automatic install, thus giving me
the opportunity to de-select the bits I do not want or need (such as
scanning Outlook).
--
Arne Hamre
Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.23
Mozilla Firefox 3.5.3
Tony Raven
square...@t-online.de says...
>
> I presume you meant to tell OBSERVANT USERS to read the installation
> instructions???
>
> And to NOT - (repeat after me... TO N-O-T) blindly click "I accept" on
> all options ???
>
So I presume you think its OK that they do this in the automatic install
option (which gives you no options to click No Thanks by the way).
Personally I think it unacceptable for a company selling security
software to require you to spend time reading the manual and then sift
through the custom installation options to avoid their malware. The
default should be no malware. YMMV.
Tony
C A Upsdell
Yeah, I call software like this "viperware", and it is all too common.
Apple and Adobe are particularly serious culprits, not only routinely
installing unwanted extras when you install some of their products, but
even installing extras when you have clearly said "No Thanks!". It has
now become part of my routine to see what Apple and Adobe installation
programs have installed, and to uninstall the things I never wanted in
the first place.
As for RTFM: the problem with this is that so many people trust what
comes from supposedly reputable companies, and never consider the
possibility that the supposedly reputable companies might be foisting
unwanted extras on them -- especially unwanted extras which are hard to
remove -- so they naturally don't think to RTFM. Sadly, it has gotten
to the point that we can't trust *anyone*.
Jay Garcia
--- Original Message ---
If you had followed the DIRECTIONS explicitly PRIOR to installation then
you would have taken the option to do the non-automatic installation to
pick and choose the addons. YMMV .. how many users RTFM anyways? :-)
--
Jay Garcia - Netscape/Flock Champion
www.ufaq.org
Netscape - Flock - Firefox - Thunderbird - Seamonkey Support
Jay Garcia
--- Original Message ---
RTFM'ing is a very basic rule, you get exactly what you pay for.
propman
> Be aware if you install the latest AVG upgrade to AVG9.0 it hijacks
> Firefox and overwrites about:config to force the use of Yahoo as a
> search engine. It also installs a Search toolbar that writes out your
> current search engine choice and replaces it with Yahoo* but that is
> relatively easily disabled.
If the Yahoo icon is displayed by the Search engine entry field (located
at the top right hand side), have you tried switching this back to
Google (or whatever your search engine preference is)?
Roger Fink
Irrespective of what you should or shouldn't have done, if you consider what
AVG did as bad behavior for a company in the security business (I do),
consider replacing it with Avast free version. Low resource-small footprint,
does its job, and I've never had a bad download in the five years I've been
using it.
David McRitchie
> Apple and Adobe are particularly serious culprits, not only routinely
> installing unwanted extras when you install some of their products, but
> even installing extras when you have clearly said "No Thanks!". It has
> now become part of my routine to see what Apple and Adobe installation
> programs have installed, and to uninstall the things I never wanted in
> the first place.
I think it was Adobe that you had to reply "No Thanks" to 3 times in the same install.
Miles
Although I agree with your attitude, how long have you been using
computers to not have learned to always choose the custom option when
installing software?
Tony Raven
mile...@REMOVEMEpacbell.net says...
>
> Although I agree with your attitude, how long have you been using
> computers to not have learned to always choose the custom option when
> installing software?
I usually do but it was late, I wanted to get it over with and I assumed
that a respected security software company would not try to do what it
did. If it had simply added a toolbar or something that was readily
removable through e.g. an options menu after the event that would not
have been so bad. But to go into and edit about:config in a way that is
not reversible except by those able to edit it themselves and without
warning is unforgivable to me no matter how remiss I was myself.
But apparently we are expected to find and pore over the manual and
presumably send the license agreement off to our attorney for review
before we install anything because you can't even trust the security
companies.
I was already planning to take the suggestion of Avast instead. AVG7
was a good program, AVG8.5 seemed to have quite a few problems and AVG9,
well enough said.
Tony
Leonidas Jones
You might also take a look at ClamWin as well. Its open source, so free
of course, regularly updated, and does not grab control of your system.
Lee
G. R. Woodring
I still use ClamWin but I can no longer recommend it. I think it was the
upgrade form 0.94.x to 0.95.x that some idiot decided to add email "spoofed
domain" anti-phishing scan. It identifies only the folder (MBOX file) where the
offending message is located. It as prone to false positives as the Thunderbird
scam warning but at least Thunderbird identifies the specific message. I could
exclude the mail files from scanning but email is a likely conduit for virus
distribution.
--
G. R. Woodring
Leonidas Jones
Good point. I'm not a regular Windows user, I've still got Clamwin 0.94
installed, and its working fine.
At the least, its another option to check out. As well, so far as I can
see, its the only free AV app that still runs in Win 98.
Lee
Eustace
I have installed AVG9 and I normally choose typical install, but am
careful to avoid clicking for extras that I do not want. I don't
remember exactly what I did during the installation, but that is what I
normally do. I don't see any Yahoo search toolbar, and in the FF search
options Google is still the first one, while Yahoo is 8th out of 9. I
suppose it has been there since the initial installation of FF.
Over the years I am careful to avoid accepting extras that I do not
want, but as I said I normally choose the typical install...
emf
--
It ain't THAT, babe! - A radical reinterpretation
https://files.nyu.edu/emf202/public/itaintmebabe/itaintme.html
Tarkus
Thank you.
David Zeit
> On 27.10.2009 06:54, Tony Raven wrote:
>
> --- Original Message ---
>
>> In article <r8adncuvwdf_UXvX...@mozilla.org>,
>> square...@t-online.de says...
>>>
>>> I presume you meant to tell OBSERVANT USERS to read the installation
>>> instructions???
>>>
>>> And to NOT - (repeat after me... TO N-O-T) blindly click "I accept"
>>> on all options ???
>>>
>>
>> So I presume you think its OK that they do this in the automatic
>> install option (which gives you no options to click No Thanks by the
>> way). Personally I think it unacceptable for a company selling
>> security software to require you to spend time reading the manual and
>> then sift through the custom installation options to avoid their
>> malware. The default should be no malware. YMMV.
>>
>> Tony
>
> If you had followed the DIRECTIONS explicitly PRIOR to installation then
> you would have taken the option to do the non-automatic installation to
> pick and choose the addons. YMMV .. how many users RTFM anyways? :-)
>
Can we uninstall AVG 9 and reinstall 8.5?
Dave Symes
David Zeit <dave...@comcast.net> wrote:
[Snippy]
> Can we uninstall AVG 9 and reinstall 8.5?
But in a short while updates for the 8.5 version will cease...
Dave
--
Dave Triffid
David McRitchie
> In article <5bKdnXT9V5419HPX...@mozilla.org>,
> David Zeit <dave...@comcast.net> wrote:
> [Snippy]
>> Can we uninstall AVG 9 and reinstall 8.5?
>
> But in a short while updates for the 8.5 version will cease...
But uninstalling AVG 9 in favor of AVG 8.5 will not solve the problem.
The problem is the tool bar that was installed and you will have to
uninstall that. I don't know if the link scanner component
of AVG is still a problem and the mail scanner can be a problem
with email.
Sjouke Burry
I switched because avg started annoying adverts.
Pete Holsberg
<snip>
> Can we uninstall AVG 9 and reinstall 8.5?
I would think you'd want to uninstall v9 and then reinstall it CAREFULLY.
Pete Holsberg
<snip>
> You can uninstall AVG 9 and install Avast. Problem solved.
> I switched because avg started annoying adverts.
Is Avast a better AV program??
Marcos Kleine
I used for long time AVG.
On windows 7 avg have a poor performance.
I moved to Microsoft Essentials and i can say. Amazing!!
propman
> Pete Holsberg escreveu:
>> Sjouke Burry wrote:
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>>> You can uninstall AVG 9 and install Avast. Problem solved.
>>> I switched because avg started annoying adverts.
>>
>> Is Avast a better AV program??
>
> I used for long time AVG.
> On windows 7 avg have a poor performance.
8.5 or 9? 8.5 indeed seem to suffer from poor performance but 9 seems
to be doing OK on my XP and Vista units.
Sjouke Burry
For me it is.
Less intrusive,no adverts(yet) and about one minute ago
it caught a virus in an attatched zip file(alt.binary.humor.skewed)