Privacy Web Browser 'Browzar' Branded Adware

DivineOmega writes "The recently released 'Browzar' web browser, based on the Internet Explorer core, is designed to protect a user's privacy whilst surfing the Internet and be an effective 'throw-away' browser. However many who deal with the removal of malware have flagged this software as malware. From the article: 'The application Browzar has been branded "adware" by many because it directs web searches to online adverts. Some technical experts also say Browzar, which claims to leave no trail of webpages visited, does not work. Browzar's developers say they are examining the feedback but strongly deny that it is adware.'"

Comments

Trail

[debilo]

How can they say it leaves no trail when it's based on IE? As far as I know, IE still keeps the browsing history in index.dat which cannot be deleted because it is locked by Windows. I doubt that has changed.

Re:Trail

[rhvarona]

It is fairly easy to delete.

1) Open a command prompt, go to your user directory where index.dat is located, and search for the index.dat file:
cd %userprofile%
dir /s/b index.dat

2) Open your task manager (press Ctrl-Shift-Esc or right click on task bar). Kill the explorer.exe process.

3) Go back to your command prompt. Delete the file that you found in step 1.

4) Start explorer again, by typing explorer.exe in the command prompt.

BTW, this method is the easiest way to delete or modify all sorts of files that the explorer shell locks while running, without requiring a reboot.

Last Page Cached

[mikeswi]

They've altered it a bit since the story on Digg. Now it opens to an Overture search engine form instead of a page full of PPC links. Same search engine though. It does save a cached copy of the last page visited in the cache folder, after you shut it down. No cookies or anything else was saved that I could see.

Before and after usage log

Already been done...

[Omicron32]

Firefox -> Tools -> Clear Private Data

Re:Any "technical details"?

[dreemernj]

Browzar erased temp files and cookies that it created, but not ones that it altered. So, if you visit a site in IE, and then go and visit it in Browzar, Browzar will alter the cookies set by IE. And when you exit Browzar, it won't undo the changes to those cookies and it won't erase them either. For it to work as advertised it would really need to work without looking at any cookies already on teh system.