I
recently hit, by mistake, what I thought was an Explorer upgrade option. It turned out to be a pop-up appearing
legitimate but really was not. It uploaded a product called Intelligent
Explorer on my machine. What a
nightmare.
I
did some research on the web and found messages like this one from a BullGuard
Antivirus Forum.
Another message from spywareinfo Forum
goes something like this:
"Hey
I'm having issues with something called Internet explorer toolbar - Intelligent
explorer. I can’t find a way to remove it from my comp and I really don’t want
to reinstall windows. I've used spybot, ad-ware, and cw shredder but nothing
seems to work."
It
appears that Intelligent Explorer allows other software to be downloaded to
your machine and this is where the problem occurs. What is even more remarkable
is that by downloading Intelligent Explorer, their license grants them the
right to install software add-ins on your computer at their will. Take a look at what the software license for
Intelligent Explore says (go to http://www.ieplugin.com/terms.html to read it
all):
"You
grant to us the right, exercisable by us until you uninstall the Software or
this agreement is otherwise terminated, to provide to you the Service of
downloading and causing to be displayed advertising material on your computer,
through ‘pop-up’ or other display while you use your browser. You acknowledge and agree that installation
of the Software may automatically modify toolbars and other settings of your
browser. By installing the Software you
agree to such modifications."
The
company, IBC incorporated, is incorporated in Belize. I really can't believe this license!
One
end user found highly objectionable pop-up advertisements generated by this
software bundled with Intelligent Explorer in the form of extreme pornography.
I
have yet to break this.
Intelligent
Explorer is a plug-in, which can create a new home page, as well as start up
and endless loop of pop-ups. You can remove the view bar, but then starting up
Internet Explorer will cause it to reappear.
I asked some friends to help, and no one could tell me what to do.
This
is what I did:
I bought a copy of a program called XoftSpy
and it removed the software. It took two scans and a reboot to do it. This is
not an advertisement for this product.
They advertised it was free, which it was to run, but then I had to buy
it to actually fix anything. It cost me $40 and I am sure that there are
freeware products out there as well, but that is what ended the nightmare for
me. Other spyware products I have seen out there include spybot, NoAdware,
Spyware Eliminator, Pal Spyware Remover, and Spyware C.O.P.
Let the buyer beware!
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