Interesting findings...Possible Spyware

[cdurbin]

Not sure what's going on, but the Daemon V4 installer seems to be installing Spyware.

I have tried it on 3 different machines and all have reported the exact same thing:

NOD32 (Defs: 20051115) reports Win32/Adware.WhenUvvsn is trying to be installed when I run Daemon Tools for the first time after install.

Can anyone explain what's going on? Is anyone else getting this?

[NetSoerfer]

Daemon Tools v4 installs a searchbar from our partner WhenU. That is not spyware though, it is a software that displays ads related to what you are currently doing. For more information please go to the DAEMON Tools Searchbar subforum.

[hinasina]

well

it is killing m system as we speak now, until i install anti virus or spy ware

[LocutusofBorg]

it is killing your system? Please explain exactly how it harmed
your system

[BoneyD]

Daemon Tools v4 installs a searchbar from our partner WhenU. That is not spyware though, it is a software that displays ads related to what you are currently doing. For more information please go to the DAEMON Tools Searchbar subforum.

How can you say it's "not spyware" and yet "display ads related to what you're doing" in the one sentence?

This clearly is malicious software, LocutusofBorg. As when I attempted to uninstall WhenU from my Firefox addons, I lost the ability to web browse! That's with either Firefox or IE.

I want to know what dll's have been changed in my system that would prevent net access to sites - Which evidently uninstalling Daemon Tools does not cure.

[FordPrefect]

Spyware has nothing to do with adware.
You can easily uninstall WhenU in Control Panel -> Add / Remove programs.
This issue has been discussed billions of times.
I suggest you continue reading here.

[chrashoverraid]

and if you looked at what you installed you wouldn't have the searchbar!!! when you installed daemon-tools you could have de-checked the box for installing the adware!!! don't blame DT or LocutusofBorg but yourself!! it wasn't nescessary!!

[BoneyD]

I do apologise if my comments appeared personally directed, but you must understand the intense frustration this had caused. I needed to re-install windows to repair this issue, as no tool would seem to. I will read that forum but I have to say, how was I supposed to know that this 'adware' would cause damage to my machine when I removed it from my browser? I know in hindsight that i'd allowed it to install, but I was not aware it would put itself in my browser. Nor the fact that not using the Add/Remove Programs menu to get it out was even more dangerous.

I am a casual user of the software and not aware of it's intricacies nor the need to read forums before installation. It would seem strange to me that a reputable product would package such software with their releases. I shall be more cautious before re-installing next time...

[NetSoerfer]

I can only confirm what FordPrefect says. I sympathize with you for having to re-install Windows, but that must have been caused by an incompatibility on your system. I have installed and uninstalled the adware that comes with Windows several times and on different systems now, a few of them with quite a collection of software installed, and I haven't had any problems doing that.

Again, I feel with you, but as with any software you install, you can never be totally sure that there won't be any problems with other software that render your system unstable or unusable.

[Jito463]

WhenU has changed drastically since that article you posted. One of the main reasons why DTools decided to use them for the adware (not spyware) in the installer. Though I still prefer not to install it at all. However - as NetSoerfer said - it normally causes no problems in a system. I wonder if your Winsock somehow got corrupted through a conflict with another software. There is software out there to fix that. WinsockXPFix is one that comes to mind. I've used it extensively at work, and is available free online. Might be worth downloading it to have around just in case.