Named & Shamed
Junk offender: Kmplayer
Junk Offender: Kmplayer
When it comes to downloading software, I often recommend going directly to the source – in other words, grabbing it from the website of the people who developed it. The reason for this is that some third-party download sites slip unwanted junk of their own into software installers – junk that inevitably ends up on your hard drive.
This is certainly the case when downloading Kmplayer (a Vlc-like media player) from Softonic ( https:// kmplayer.en.softonic.com). After installing the program, Malwarebytes’ Adwcleaner tool picked up six PUPS on my PC – all of which came from Softonic.
But in this instance, I wouldn’t recommend installing Kmplayer from its official download page ( www.kmplayer. com/pc) either. For starters, the Kmplayer website is in Korean, no matter where your IP address says you are located geographically. You can switch to English, but the link for doing this is also in Korean!
If you persevere and download the tool, you’ll find that it’s only the beginning of your problems. Its installer is, thankfully, in English, but it may as well be double Dutch for all the sense it makes. At one point, I was presented with a list of unintelligible installation options, including one unhelpfully labelled ‘Set to interlock default file’ (see screenshot). What does that mean?
Most of these options are pre-ticked, including a hidden one that you have to scroll down to, labelled ‘Install Pandoratv shortcut icon’ (which dumps on your desktop a shortcut to a Korean videostreaming site), and it’s not clear which components you can safely untick. Not only that, but the installer also prompts you to install Avast Free Antivirus, unless you click Decline. The easiest solution, of course, is to not install Kmplayer at all.