WARNING: JUNK AHEAD
Junk offender: Vuze
After 15 years writing about software, I finally installed my first Bittorrent client, Vuze ( www.vuze.com) - and it welcomed me by trying to sneak a Yahoo search PUP and a fake security tool on to my PC.
Perhaps it serves me right for meddling with Bittorrent. It’s used by video pirates to share copyrighted films, software and music for free, after all. My intentions were ethical, honest. I wanted to share enormous videos files from my PC to my laptop, and Vuze looked like a great way to do that.
The installer for the new free version of Vuze – ‘The Most Powerful Bittorrent Software on Earth’, according to itself - began by downloading Java to my PC without asking. You know Java. That plug-in with more holes than an industrial fishing net. Java is supposedly being retired, but no one’s told Vuze.
I ticked the tiny ‘Customize’ box and was offered a few innocuous shortcuts, and then some pre-ticked components – Message Sync, itunes Integration (yawn) - but nothing juicy. When I clicked Next a couple more times the fun really began.
‘Free Search Offer by Spigot’ said the page heading, in tiny letters that I could read from a whole inch away. ‘Yahoo! Inc (“Yahoo”) welcomes you.’ Oh dear. There followed a page of cramped legalese that a casual observer might mistake for the licence agreement. Click Accept, and you’ll immediately find your browser devoured by a Yahoo hijacker.
I clicked Decline (phew!) – and then came an ‘offer’ for ‘Malware Protection Live, Recommended by Vuze’. This time the tiny lettering was headed ‘SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT’ (see screenshot) – and came with an Accept button.
Malware Protection Live sounds like an important tool that’s part of Vuze. It’s not – it’s another PUP. This fake security tool slows your PC dramatically, doesn’t block malware and takes several steps to remove ( www.snipca.com/23168). I managed to get through the Vuze installer without acquiring either of these PUPS, but only because I knew to keep clicking Decline. And I ended up using a USB stick to transfer my files anyway.