FAKE VIRUS WARNINGS & UPGRADE TRAPS
How your software LIES to you
Microsoft’s online storage service is built into Windows 10. You get 5GB free, but you have to pay if you want more space. Currently 50GB costs £1.99 a month.
How does it lie? When you reach the limits of your free 5GB allocation, Windows 10 users see an alarming no entry-style notification that tells you to ‘Get more storage to continue adding files’, implying that you need to pay to carry on using the service. You don’t. Simply moving, deleting or compressing some of your Onedrive files will let you add more for free.
What’s the solution? A bit of housekeeping should suffice. Open File Explorer, then double-click your Onedrive folder to see what’s actually in it. To find out which files are taking up the most space, click the Size column to show the biggest files at the top. Move, then delete (or simply delete if you don’t need them) any large files to free up space.
To stop Onedrive notifications, click Start, Settings, System, ‘Notifications & actions’, scroll down to the ‘Get notifications from these senders’ section, then switch the Onedrive slider to Off (see screenshot below left).
Avast Free
Avast’s free antivirus (AV) tool fared well in our latest group test (see Issue 493, page 50), but it’s not above trying to trick you into buying its full range of programs.
How does it lie? During Avast Free’s setup it’s all too easy to install unwanted extras if you’re not careful. Once you’ve installed it you’ll encounter multiple prompts to install free tools or unlock premium features.
Worse still, when you update Avast Free to the latest version you’ll see a confirmation screen with a large Activate Now button. You might, understandably, assume this activates the update, but that’s not the case. What it’s actually doing is attempting to get you to install a free trial of the paid-for (£50 a year) Avast Internet Security program. What’s the solution? Alas, Avast doesn’t let you block these misleading offers and prompts. The only solution is to be wary of the program’s underhand tactics. In the example above, click the tiny, grey ‘No, thanks – close this window’ link below the Activate Now button (see screenshot below left) to dismiss the message.
Winzip
This file-compression tool (£25.95) may have been around for years, but that doesn’t mean you should trust it.
How does it lie? Winzip users will already be familiar with its less-than-truthful pop-up message telling you that your free ‘Evaluation Version’ has expired. But, if you wait a few seconds, you can simply dismiss the message and carry on using it as before.
However, the latest version of Winzip (21) has a 21-day trial period that really will come to an end. Double-clicking any ZIP file after those 21 days will produce a pop-up telling you that ‘Your Winzip trial has expired’. Winzip hopes you’ll be startled into buying the paid-for version, fearing that you’ll lose your files if you don’t. But you can simply move them to another service.
What’s the solution? First, we suggest you uninstall Winzip (click Start, Settings, Apps, Winzip, then click Uninstall). Doing this will restore Windows’ built-in support for ZIP files, allowing you to extract and compress as normal. If you
used other compressed file formats (such as RAR or 7z), we recommend the excellent open-source Peazip ( www.peazip.org), which is free and doesn’t blackmail you.
Malwarebytes Free
Malwarebytes’ free security tool has many virtues and is a great tool in the fight against malware. It’s not without its vices though.
How does it lie? When you first install the latest version (Malwarebytes 3), you get 14 days using its paid-for version, including real-time malware and ransomware protection. But when the tool reverts to the free edition, its dashboard bombards you with warnings that your PC is at risk “from ransomware and other threats”. You can – it suggests – resolve this by buying Malwarebytes Premium (£29.99 per year). But the truth is your existing antivirus tool will almost certainly be providing this protection.
How do you stop it? You can’t switch off these alerts, but you can safely ignore them once you’ve confirmed that you are running antivirus software.
To check this, click Start, type security, then click ‘Security and Maintenance’. In the window that opens, click the down arrow next to Security and check that you have a program listed as On under ‘Virus protection’ (see screenshot above). If it says ‘Off’ you need antivirus protection – and quickly. We recommend Kaspersky (see our Reader Offer, page 68), or Avast Free from www.snipca.com/24826, but read our section on Avast Free first (see previous page).
Clean PC Smart
This registry cleaner is allegedly free, but we wouldn’t use it even if it paid us to.
How does it lie? Most of the tools covered here are at least legitimate programs in their own right. Not so Clean PC Smart, which is basically just one big, fat lie
dressed up as a registry-cleaning tool. Run it and it’ll look like it’s scanning your PC, claiming to find numerous “issues”, then offer to fix them and optimise your PC. In fact, it does none of these things and has been proven to be a complete and utter fake.
How do you stop it? Uninstall it right away and run a scan with your security software for any other PUPS that may have found their way on to your PC.
Nero
Nero is a disc-burning and multimedia program that costs between £40 and £90, depending on the version.
How does it lie? We all know it’s important to keep our software up to date, right? Well, running the updater for some versions of Nero (including Nero 2014) can actually make things worse.
During this process the program may ask you to let it change all your PC’S default programs – so that all your media files open in Nero programs. It will also change your privacy settings, allowing the program’s developers to collect data about you unless you change its settings.
How do you stop it? Updating Nero can be a convoluted process and you’ll need to keep your wits about you throughout. Keep your eye out for screens like the one below. Here, the ‘Always open multimedia
files with Nero Prerequisite Installer’ box and ‘Join the Nero Product Improvement Program’ options will be selected by default. Unselect the boxes and select ‘No, thanks’ before continuing with the update.
Iobit Uninstaller Free
Iobit’s free uninstaller works well, but it’s another example of a company using its best product to peddle lesser programs.
How does it lie? Click its Action Center (which uses an icon that’s suspiciously similar to the one for Windows’ Action Center) and you’ll discover a list of warnings (punctuated by exclamation marks, see screenshot below) about several registry errors, outdated drivers, privacy issues and junk files that have (apparently) been found on your PC.
Fear not. These ‘warnings’ are effectively nothing more than adverts, out to scare you into buying Iobit’s paid-for tools, such as Advanced Systemcare Ultimate (£23) and Driver Booster Pro (£17.68).
How do you stop it? Sadly, you can’t, other than by ignoring Iobit Uninstaller’s Action Center altogether. You can always switch to an uninstaller that doesn’t use alarmist tactics, such as Wise Program Uninstaller ( www.snipca.com/24827), which recently won gold in our uninstaller group test (see Issue 504, page 50).