Tucows & ACDSee Spreading Browser Hijacker
You better be careful when downloading any software from tucows.com, specially ACDSee. I was caught yesterday because of my trust on tucows. I have downloaded a few software few months back from tucows.com and did not have any problem but, yesterday, there was problem waiting for me.
I was in need of old ACDSee Pro 5. I googled and found that tucows.com has it. I downloaded it from there and started installing that. Installation process was taking long time. After 5 minutes, I have to cancel it. Then I noticed that my laptop is bit laggy.
I have Lenovo Edge E530 which has Intel Core i7 3612QM and 8GM RAM onboard. I am using Windows 8.1 Pro. Before Windows 8.1, I was using Windows 7 Pro which is more resources consuming than 8.1. So, lagging of my computer did not hide at all. Just then, I thought something has gone wrong.
To get some help, I opened Chrome and there that was: my homepage was set to Webssearches which is a known browser hijacker plugin. My default search engine was also changed. It definitely made me angry but the real anger was that ACDSee installer did not ask me at all about webssearches installation.
I just wanted to get rid of webssearches. I checked Programs and Features in Control Panel. There was its uninstaller. I uninstalled it. Checked Chrome again and nothing was changed. Well, after uninstalling it, I changed all the settings manually to what I like in Chrome. I have to reset Firefox and Internet Explorer to default settings.
Spreading browser hijackers through famous software ACDSee is a shame for ACD Inc. You are not giving your software for free. It was a 30 days trial version. Let’s suppose it was free, should there not be a warning in the installer about this browser hijacker? Is it not your moral responsibility to mention about it in installer? Are you so greedy that just to get a few cents you play with our security. You are spreading browser hijacker “webssearches” which nobody wants in their computer. This is also a shameful act for a well-known software hosting website named tucows.com. People trust you and you play with their trust like this. Shame on both of you.
I remember, four years ago, I wrote about Nero BurnLite 10 Free which was shame for such a big name like Nero. This new shameful act by ACDSee and tucows is even worst than that.
I wonder how many people have been victimized. If you are the victim of this evil act, here is complete pictorial for you how to remove webssearches from your computer completely.