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Warning about uinstalling those crappy optimizer pro type software

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Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

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A little word of warning when cleaning up peoples computers who have been subject to poo packs (Which is pretty much Everyone) .. as of recent I think uninstaller of optimizer pro or other optimizer software are destroying the programs and feature list

 

You'll notice this happening because as soon as you uninstall one of the optimizers and proceed to the next piece of crap (or any app in the list), it will say "This program has already been uninstalled". If you close and open program and features you'll notice the list is now empty or close to empty.

 

Only way to correct this is to do a system restore.

 

So my recommendation would be to uninstall all pieces of poo accept the optimizers. Let programs like Adwcleaner, malwarebytes or junk file remover take care of those.

  • The Evil Overlord, HoochieMamma, T3X4S and 1 other
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Grand Master

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The real solution is to never install those so-called "cleaners" / "optimizers" in the first place...they either do nothing at all, or do more harm than good.

 

 

Hence the term "poo packs" customers install. They get this software by clicking on the VERY first search results in Google searches. Which are a bundled poo pack included in the software they are looking for.

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_dandy_

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Hence the term "###### packs" customers install. They get this software by clicking on the VERY first search results in google searches. Which are a bundled ###### pack included in the software they are looking for.

 

Pardon me for not knowing what "######" stands for.

 

Codec packs?  :-)

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Top Qat

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Always download software from the original developer's web site. Ignore the ads returned at the top of the Google results.

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Grand Master

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Always download software from the original developer's web site. Ignore the ads returned at the top of the Google results.

 

which 99% of all average users never do.

 

Just today I cleaned up 3 computers today and 2 on saturday that had installed poo packs.

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Grand Master

Gotenks98

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which 99% of all average users never do.

 

Just today I cleaned up 3 computers today and 2 on saturday that had installed poo packs.

I agree here. I spend at least a good 3rd of my time in cleaning systems removing all this junk. I just wish there was a way to make crap like this against the law so people cant download it.

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Grand Master

+jamesyfx Subscriber²

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I just wish what I can general users actually examined what dialog boxes say when they appear instead of clicking Yes to get rid of it. If they just did that... their lives would be a whole lot easier.

 

I don't do it as often as I used to, but I ran Malwarebytes on one of my friends' mothers laptop, all she does is use ebay and play a few games. 900+ malware detections. -_- And this is a fairly new laptop, came pre installed with Windows 8.

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Grand Master

Aergan

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I found the path of behavioural conditioning works well: You break it, I format it. Don't like it? Don't break it. No OS restore DVD / partition / system image? Enjoy FOSS.

 

Less people come to me with home computer type problems these days.

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Sikh

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I found the path of behavioural conditioning works well: You break it, I format it. Don't like it? Don't break it. No OS restore DVD / partition / system image? Enjoy FOSS.

Less people come to me with home computer type problems these days.

This is what I did to all my customers. Only 5% listened. The others bitched and moaned. They decided to get a external hard drive as backup and keep everything on it which in return meant its always plugegd in. I would explain this defeats the purpose but nope. So they break I reformat it breaks instantly I laugh and reformat. Some decided that I was stupid and went to best buy. After shelling out 2-300 they called me in saying sorry. I would go over see all the best buy junk and sticker and would leave. Not worth my time. Especially after all the crap they say to you when they think your jerking them.

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Grand Master

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This is what I did to all my customers. Only 5% listened. The others bitched and moaned. They decided to get a external hard drive as backup and keep everything on it which in return meant its always plugegd in. I would explain this defeats the purpose but nope. So they break I reformat it breaks instantly I laugh and reformat. Some decided that I was stupid and went to best buy. After shelling out 2-300 they called me in saying sorry. I would go over see all the best buy junk and sticker and would leave. Not worth my time. Especially after all the crap they say to you when they think your jerking them.

 

If a customer gets a crap pack i'm not going to waste my time and reinstall windows each time they do it. I had one customer download a crap pack 2 days after I just cleaned. He told me he realized what he did to. He clicked on one of the ads.

 

 

For the last 3 years. Every time I reinstall windows for a customer I image their hard drive onto a 1 TB drive well Now I have 4 drives

 

Customer Drive Images 1-1 / 1-2

Customer Drive Images 2-1  2-2

 

that holds customer drive images. This way if I reformat, install a new hard drive and the drive dies in a week I don't have to reinstall all over again.

 

or if something happens in a few months or a years time. These images don't hold any customer data just the reinstall itself. I also name them by computer model number. So if I ever come across a desktop that I have in my data base i'll just use that image.

  • goretsky and flynempire
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DoctorD

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  • I loved it when a customer said this to me....... But.... But, I paid for it(optimizer pro) you must be mistaken it is supposed to help keep my system running fine.  So I then in turn said, "then why is it that are you here then?"

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Gotenks98

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This is exactly why I love Windows 8 so much. Do the OS install only once, get the system up to date with drivers. do a recimg /createimage c:\recovery_image . Rename customrefresh.wim to install.wim then do a a reagentc /setosimage /path c:\recovery_image /index 1 /target c:\windows . Then if they screw their system up again, just do a reset my pc. Then all done. Yeah it sucks for them to lose everything but I have to only go thru this crap only once now.

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EZRecovery

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  • I loved it when a customer said this to me....... But.... But, I paid for it(optimizer pro) you must be mistaken it is supposed to help keep my system running fine.  So I then in turn said, "then why is it that are you here then?"

 

 

jaja @ DoctorD.

 

I remember a customer of mine, he got a link to download Antivirus Pro 2012 something like that. He told me he thought of calling me first to ask me, but he continued because his antivirus was expired so he thought the company had sent him a link to download the new version....jaja

 

He installed it and used his credit card and paid for it. Like 30 mins later, he was feeling guilty of doing that, so he called me and told me what he had done. I told him, call the credit card company ASAP and put a stop payment, because you just purchased a fake antivirus  :woot:

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Sikh

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If a customer gets a crap pack i'm not going to waste my time and reinstall windows each time they do it. I had one customer download a crap pack 2 days after I just cleaned. He told me he realized what he did to. He clicked on one of the ads.

 

 

For the last 3 years. Every time I reinstall windows for a customer I image their hard drive onto a 1 TB drive well Now I have 4 drives

 

Customer Drive Images 1-1 / 1-2

Customer Drive Images 2-1  2-2

 

that holds customer drive images. This way if I reformat, install a new hard drive and the drive dies in a week I don't have to reinstall all over again.

 

or if something happens in a few months or a years time. These images don't hold any customer data just the reinstall itself. I also name them by computer model number. So if I ever come across a desktop that I have in my data base i'll just use that image.

 

I would've done this if I was getting paid well or had the funds. I was only charging 10/hour to get myself out there and i would get most work done in an hour or two. I would charge for gas when necessary. It worked i got bigger people paid me more then i asked for every time but it didn't make sense to buy a repository. I thought about doing what you said so many times because I do the same for every computer i build and every computer i build for friends. I always make them give me an external or buy one so i can put a fresh image of their install on there.

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(Account no longer active)

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A lot of those optimizer packages stop antivirus software from installing after the (optimizer) package has been uninstalled too, especially with AV installers that download installation files from the net (they must block certain ports).

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Grand Master

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Make that 4 poo pack cleanups today! Someone just called me at 8pm. This person is also missing 8.1

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Grand Master

T3X4S

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The real solution is to never install those so-called "cleaners" / "optimizers" in the first place...they either do nothing at all, or do more harm than good.

You're assuming the layman is educated enough about these things - and if there is one thing we learn in IT - most people are morons.

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_dandy_

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You're assuming the layman is educated enough about these things - and if there is one thing we learn in IT - most people are morons.

 

After letting them do that once or twice, you'd think whoever's doing the cleanup would end up just removing admin rights.

 

If they insist on having those rights, and they manage to re-infect themselves, that's where you start charging a premium.

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Grand Master

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After letting them do that once or twice, you'd think whoever's doing the cleanup would end up just removing admin rights.

 

If they insist on having those rights, and they manage to re-infect themselves, that's where you start charging a premium.

 

Yes I could remove Admin rights, but then they would just nag me  because they can't install stuff. I'm not keeping track of 2,055 different admin passwords. I clean them up, I explain to them how they got the poo pack by clicking on ads at the top of google or by not unchecking boxes during installs. After that if they get another poo pack thats on them. Plus i'm getting paid for each one all the while trying to educate them.

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Grand Master

TPreston

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That makes 5 poo pack cleanups today ...this one called at 9:21pm .. gotta love working out of my home.

Its not just search engines go to softpedia or neowin or any other site and youll see links for this junk. I wish the owners of these sites were held accountable for the cost of removing this crap

 

If you have ESET you can enable the detection of potentially unwanted/unsafe applications to alert the user that the file/installer is infected with this junk

  • goretsky and Dashel
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