WINDOWS 10
The best NEW things you can now do (which you couldn’t in 7 and 8)
just suspiciously “stubborn” (How To Remove, www.snipca.com/17859) and others don’t mind it at all (Should I Remove It? www.snipca.com/17860).
What’s certain is that its installer is a menace. You might be lucky enough to find it briefly free of PUPS, but we’ve never been able to install it on test computers without coincidentally acquiring a load of adware, notably Binkiland (more about which in a moment).
If Camstudio is on your computer, delete it and its leftover junk using Iobit Uninstaller, then run Adwcleaner to weed out any remaining adware and malicious files in your Registry, browsers and hard drive.
Eject browser hijackers
As we saw with Camstudio, the reputation-checking site Should I Remove It? can be somewhat generous in its ratings. It even gives Binkiland a ‘green’ (safe) status ( www.snipca. com/17857). The green can only represent the sick feeling we get every time we see it – which is every time we open the browser on our test PC. We delete it, and it comes back. It’s like that permanent damp patch on your bathroom wall.
Binkiland is a browser hijacker, because it embeds itself in your browser (all of your browsers, in fact) and refuses to budge. It’s also likely to be spyware ( www.snipca.com/17861). A similar offender that’s currently doing the rounds is Wajam, which – like Binkiland – claims to be nothing other than a safe search assistant. We’ve already got a search tool, thanks – it’s called Google. We don’t want any others.
Getting rid of these parasites is not easy. First clear them from your browser settings (they’ll be listed under search engines and perhaps also extensions); search for them in Iobit Uninstaller and run the force-removal tool; clear leftovers using Adwcleaner; run Ccleaner and Malwarebytes Anti-malware Free, and then do a full antivirus scan.
However, because tools like Binkiland use files that regenerate when deleted, they may still come back. So you should also try the manual file-removal steps outlined for different versions of Windows on the Spyware Techie site ( www.snipca.com/17862). It recommends checking if hijackers Dealkeeper, Optimizer Pro and Regclean Pro are on your hard drive too, and offers removal guides for each one.
Boot out MYPC Backup
You know you’re in trouble when you type the name of a program – in this case ‘My PC Backup’ – into Google and get a ‘card’ at the top telling you how to remove it. The card links to a page on the Malwaretips blog ( www.snipca. com/17863), which claims this adware comes bundled in Cnet installers, installs itself without your permission and then demands cash to back up vital PC files. Shockingly, the program has even been found pre-installed on new laptops.
Symantec’s Norton Security tool ( www. snipca.com/17866) can’t remove it, but we did find a detailed manual removal guide on the Lavasoft site ( www.snipca. com/17867). See our Cover Feature in Issue 449 for more horror stories of preinstalled junk, and tips on removing it.
Erase video tools that are too good to be true
Free video software – with the noble exceptions of VLC and Mediaportal – is not to be trusted. Sorry for the generalisation, but it’s based on bitter experience of adware-riddled installers. Even VLC ( www.snipca.com/17880) unnerved us when it launched, because it seemed too good be true (it’s not – it’s brilliant, free and safe).
Our occasional ‘Named & Shamed’ columns are like a police line-up of video nasties, including Freemake Video Converter (Issue 443) and Free Youtube Downloader (Issue 454) – both of which install Wajam. Some sites regard Free Youtube Downloader itself as malware, and there’s a detailed removal guide on the Malware Killers site ( www.snipca. com/17864).
Also beware of Dvdvideosoft ( www. dvdvideosoft.com), maker of various free Youtube downloaders, screen recorders and Bittorrent clients. Its installers contain toolbars and browser hijackers that may be on your PC without your knowledge. Look carefully through your Iobit Uninstaller list and blitz them using the multi-weapon approach described in the box on page 53.