Tag Archives: toolbars

Avast Browser Cleanup removes 650 million unwanted browser add-ons with ease

Most Internet users are familiar with this problem all too well: After downloading a video player, Java, Flash updates or other software, the browser has suddenly changed. New buttons and icons in all colors and sizes along with an URL entry bar take up valuable real estate on your browser. The browser runs noticeably slower […]

How to remove nuisance browser toolbars?

Question of the week: “How do I get this stupid Sweetpacks off my computer?! It’s driving me crazy!” This question didn’t come from an AVAST email, a support ticket, or even our Facebook page. It came directly from my mother as we were talking on the phone one day. Believe me, when you work for […]

Frustrating user experience from a shady download portal

We received a message from a customer informing us that when she installed avast! Free Antivirus, she also got an unwelcome toolbar installed from Conduit. After an investigation, we found that there are some shady characters providing our popular free antivirus protection with unwanted toolbars and other scams. Thomas Salomon, head of AVAST Software ‘s […]

Nice apps get bad makeover after spammers buy them

This is one “before and after” picture that we didn’t want to see. Someone contacted the original developers of Chrome extensions Add to Feedly and Tweet This Page with an offer to purchase. Thinking it was a good opportunity for a company with more time and money to further develop what they started, both developers […]

AVAST scans what bugged us this year and will continue to buzz alarm in 2014

by Caroline James, AVAST Software’s U.S. PR manager The top three security trends of 2013 will only strengthen in 2014. Hackers abusing new payment options, browser toolbars spreading extensively, and new privacy issues have defined this year’s trends of security threats and nuisances. Online fraud goes viral on mobile 2013 has been the year of new […]

avast! Browser Cleanup still at work

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by Thomas Salomon, head of AVAST Software ‘s German Software Development team In one of our previous posts we wrote about browser extensions and their possibly unwanted effects on our customers’ computers. Browser toolbars have been around for years, however, in the last couple of months they became a huge mess. Unfortunately, lots of free […]

Browser Toolbars – almost malware?

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by Thomas Salomon, head of AVAST Software ‘s German Software Development team In a previous blog post we wrote about the statistics from avast! Browser Cleanup. These statistics have become even worse: More than 1,000,000 (one million!) browser add-ons are available for the three main browsers More than 82% of all add-ons have a bad […]