This is a bad-news trend - and a bad reflection - on freeware. Gizmo's site still carries such freeware, but along with a warning, which is great and acceptable. Now one has an informed choice.Įven good names like Avast! and Avira are now popping up adds from subscription AV programs and from iobit I got a purchased program with 75% of the interface taken up with an advertisement for another 'Buy NOW' program. (I am beginning to HATE that word 'NOW'!) It took me five months to get a refund - through a third party activist. I wrote Avast! a very straightforward email telling them I left Avira mid-term, with 6 months subscription left, for sinking so low, only to find that who I thought was way above such sordid practices, was also there.

I made no bones that Avast! had now lost it's good standing and integrity as well. Odd that I am unable to log in to see Avast!'s reply to my ticket: my username and password, hitherto fine, no longer work. I also wrote to FileHippo, also one of the best in the past, for carrying programs with foistware, without a warning, from which one is unable to opt out, as it is now included in the EULA! - stuff like Open Candy, AVG Toolbar, Ask Toolbar, Conduit, Delta etc etc. These days I seldom venture to download a program, but just make do with what I've got. Gizmo's TechSupportAlert investigated a small program named 'Unchecky', found it good, and offered it. I installed it and it runs unobtrusively in the background, and unchecks those slimy, checked tick-boxes that we all know so well. A great little program, rendering a smart service to the unwary.īob. I had missed your first article, written early in 2013.

I downloaded, I think it was Avast's Free version and I got the Conduit and Sweet Packs added to my PC, without asking for permission or even notifying that these two Foistwares, would be installed, as well. I took me almost a week, to get rid of them. I had to get into the Registry, to achieve this, too! I tried using Malwarebytes, that didn't work, the program simply kept on scanning and making no progress. I tried Malwarebytes' Chameleon and still Conduit was there, as was Sweet Packs.

Iobit uninstaller filehippo