Warning about uinstalling those crappy optimizer pro type software

[+Warwagon MVC]

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.

[+Warwagon MVC]

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

 

download.com is the worst. Look at all those fake "START DOWNLOAD" buttons which have NOTHING to do with the thing you are downloading.

 

Had one customer call me  after bringing home his sons brand new laptop from the store. With in 5 mins of having it out of the box he got a poo pack of about 6 different things when trying to install avast.

[_dandy_]

Yes I could remove Admin rights, but then they would just nag me  because they can't install stuff.

 

That would be the point, yes.

 

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.

 

However you want to do this is up to you.  I wasn't aware you already got to charge them for cleaning up their systems each time.  In that case, if you take the time to explain how they end up with this crap in the first place, and they still manage to do so, that's their own fault.

 

I would suggest explaining to them how you could remove admin rights and how it would affect their day-to-day routine--and give them their own admin passwords.  Then at least they won't accidentally end up with stuff installed that they didn't approve with a simple click.  There's a good side to annoying a user for a password each time something tries to install itself.  Then you get the best of both worlds.  Except if your goal here is repeat business...

[+Warwagon MVC]

That would be the point, yes.

 

 

However you want to do this is up to you.  I wasn't aware you already got to charge them for cleaning up their systems each time.  In that case, if you take the time to explain how they end up with this crap in the first place, and they still manage to do so, that's their own fault.

 

Why wouldn't I get to charge them each time? Not running a charity here! :laugh: Most of the time they don't come back for a while. Sometimes it's only 2 months.

[_dandy_]

Why wouldn't I get to charge them each time? Not running a charity here! :laugh: Most of the time they don't come back for a while. Sometimes it's only 2 months.

 

I wasn't sure whether you were doing that for friends/family or as a business.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I wasn't sure whether you were doing that for friends/family or as a business.

 

Oh yes, as a business. 13 years and 2,055 customers and counting :)

[Elliot B.]

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.

A massive majority of those will be perfectly safe cookies.

[_dandy_]

Oh yes, as a business. 13 years and 2,055 customers and counting :)

 

Well, in my defense, you *could* have 2055 friends on Facebook...

 

Sounds like it could be an interesting business.  I'm sure there's plenty of money to be made manually cleaning up people's systems, rather than the wipe/reinstall approach of most places.

 

I'm curious--what are your must-have tools?  Personally, I mostly stick with a few utilities from SysInternals, and they've never failed in helping me get rid of malware (so far!), but then I can't make the claim that I've cleaned thousands of systems either.  :-)

[_dandy_]

A massive majority of those will be perfectly safe cookies.

 

As a general rule, all cookies are safe, unless someone knows how to intentionally cause something like a buffer overflow with a malformed cookie.

 

Whether you're okay with letting cookies from dubious sites track you though, that's another discussion entirely.  But in terms of being "safe"/"unsafe"...all "warnings" about cookies, IMO, can be ignored.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Well, in my defense, you *could* have 2055 friends on Facebook...

 

Sounds like it could be an interesting business.  I'm sure there's plenty of money to be made manually cleaning up people's systems, rather than the wipe/reinstall approach of most places.

 

I'm curious--what are your must-have tools?  Personally, I mostly stick with a few utilities from SysInternals, and they've never failed in helping me get rid of malware (so far!), but then I can't make the claim that I've cleaned thousands of systems either.  :-)

 

Actually I charge more for a full reinstall than I do for a poo pack cleanup. Poo pack cleanups typically are $64.74 (includes 7% sales tax) .. reinstalls are $88.28

 

The tools I use for the poo pack cleanups are

 

1) First uninstall the apps using the uninstaller in programs and features, Except the Optimizer pros. By doing a sort by date. That brings all the most recent crap to the top. I use the official uninstallers first because they know where they put all of their files.

 

Sure the tools listed below will do their best to clean out poo packs but they might not be able to detect every part. So I use the tools below for left over cleanup

 

2) Run Adwcleaner

3) Run junk file remover

4) Reboot

5) Run cleaner and remove temp and internet temp files

6) Run Malwarebytes

7) Go through Chrome settings / firefox and remove any left over poo pack home pages and default searches and addons

8) Run patchmypc to check for updates for 3rd party applications

9) Check for any missing Windows updates

10) Reset IE back to the default settings.

11) Test out the browsers to make sure they are working properly now.

12) Flush system restore. this stops the user from accidentally reverting the system back to a date when it had the poo pack.

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

A massive majority of those will be perfectly safe cookies.

While thats true, the computer did have a genuine malware infection that caused the computer not the run properly. I've no idea which was which, but I recall there were a large number of trojans and a few different varieties of ransomware. It's just crazy how easy it is to avoid all these things.

 

I mean I've been using a Windows 8 laptop for about a year now without using any kind of security or antimalware on top of the standard windows defender base that's built in.. and I recently installed malwarebytes onto it to check.. and 0 detections. Not even a cookie that was flagged up.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

No defrag or disabling of un-needed programs/services?

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

 

 

Actually I charge more for a full reinstall than I do for a poo pack cleanup. Poo pack cleanups typically are $64.74 (includes 7% sales tax) .. reinstalls are $88.28

 

The tools I use for the poo pack cleanups are

 

1) First uninstall the apps using the uninstaller in programs and features, Except the Optimizer pros. By doing a sort by date. That brings all the most recent crap to the top. I use the official uninstallers first because they know where they put all of their files.

 

Sure the tools listed below will do their best to clean out poo packs but they might not be able to detect every part. So I use the tools below for left over cleanup

 

2) Run Adwcleaner

3) Run junk file remover

4) Reboot

5) Run cleaner and remove temp and internet temp files

6) Run Malwarebytes

7) Go through Chrome settings / firefox and remove any left over poo pack home pages and default searches and addons

8) Run patchmypc to check for updates for 3rd party applications

9) Check for any missing Windows updates

10) Reset IE back to the default settings.

11) Test out the browsers to make sure they are working properly now.

12) Flush system restore. this stops the user from accidentally reverting the system back to a date when it had the poo pack.

[+John Teacake MVC]

I read the first page and here by put a motion forward that we widely adopt the use of the word "Poo Pack" here on Neowin.

 

All in favor say I. 

[Gotenks98]

Hello,

 

No defrag or disabling of un-needed programs/services?

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

Defragging is pointless with today's technology. Windows 7/8/8.1 all auto defrag on its own. Disabling services has a small effect unless you installed something super bloated like Oracle anything. Better to leave it alone unless you know its bloat.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Hello,

 

No defrag or disabling of un-needed programs/services?

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

I'll only defrag if it's an XP machine. I typically don't disable any un-needed services. I keep everything stock windows. I don't want to disable some small unwanted service on 2000+ machines and have that service I disabled cause an update not to install or cause some compatibility with something down the road. Which is why I leave it the way it was installed. It's also why I only use official Microsoft ISO's.

 

But  did forget to document one step I do

 

Disable startup items.

[EZRecovery]

download.com is the worst. Look at all those fake "START DOWNLOAD" buttons which have NOTHING to do with the thing you are downloading.

 

 

Yeah, nowadays you gotta spent at least 10 minutes looking for the REAL download button :angry: ,

 

cause the others are to get YOU!  :shiftyninja:

[NateB1]

Stuff like this is one primary reason why I got my mom a Surface a while back - since it's an ARM processor, and you can't install desktop apps, it's immune to malware/toolbars/optimizers/etc.  All she does is edit Word docs, do some simple Excel spreadsheets, email, and browse the web.  She loves the thing and rarely uses her older desktop PC any more, and my life has improved dramatically by not needing to constantly be removing all that stuff every time I stop by. 

[TechJunkie81]

I read the first page and here by put a motion forward that we widely adopt the use of the word "Poo Pack" here on Neowin.

 

All in favor say I. 

I.

[Top Qat]

I.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

I. Warwagon, you coined a term, sir. A great one at that. Good job buddy!

[+Warwagon MVC]

I read the first page and here by put a motion forward that we widely adopt the use of the word "Poo Pack" here on Neowin.

 

All in favor say I. 

 

i

[adam.mt]

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.

 

Definitely the way to go. I find if you configure two accounts (one standard account for general use, the other admin account for installs) then it dramatically cuts down on the likelihood of reinfection - by putting an extra step in the way, the user is far more likely to think about what they are doing rather than blindly clicking yes on every pop-up. And yes you give them the admin password, it's too much hassle to withhold it. This is exactly the reason why Microsoft introduced UAC in Windows Vista.

 

Stuff like this is one primary reason why I got my mom a Surface a while back - since it's an ARM processor, and you can't install desktop apps, it's immune to malware/toolbars/optimizers/etc.  All she does is edit Word docs, do some simple Excel spreadsheets, email, and browse the web.  She loves the thing and rarely uses her older desktop PC any more, and my life has improved dramatically by not needing to constantly be removing all that stuff every time I stop by. 

 

Or alternatively they can use their existing PC, just remove the admin rights and don't give them the password  :laugh:

[astropheed Veteran]

I just yell and scream at the people who have copious amounts of crap on their machines. Afterwards, I pick up their laptop (it's always a laptop) and throw it at the wall proclaiming, "you brought this on yourselves!". At this point I say, "the machine is fixed and it'll no longer cause you any problems". I don't have customers anymore so I can only assume my unorthodox methods are working.

[Shiranui]

Defragging is pointless with today's technology. 

 

Unless you have an SSD, which should be mandatory now, defragging is not pointless.

[TAZMINATOR]

Grab a sledgehammer and smash those PCs 

 

 

:shifty:

[Gotenks98]

Yeah, nowadays you gotta spent at least 10 minutes looking for the REAL download button :angry: ,

 

cause the others are to get YOU!  :shiftyninja:

Yeah its getting real retarded with the way the sites are now. Daemon Tools is one that has all these fake links in it as well as poop packs if you don't watch the selections. So glad I moved to Windows 8 and don't need this software anymore.

I.

I

Unless you have an SSD, which should be mandatory now, defragging is not pointless.

It is pointless for 2 reasons, Windows Vista thru 8.1 windows auto defrags when your not using it. And even with spinning HDDs the access times are fast enough to compensate for fragmentation. Like I said before its pointless to try to optimize defragging