Ask Toolbar Now Considered Malware By Microsoft

AmiMoJo writes: Last month Microsoft changed its policy on protecting search settings to include any software that attempts to hijack searches as malware. As a result, this month the Ask Toolbar, which most people will probably recognize as being unwanted crapware bundled with Java, was marked as malware and will now be removed by Microsoft's security software built in to Windows 7 and above.

Comments

Flashback time

[Ol Olsoc]

When people called me, having trouble with their browsers, and there were about 15 or more toolbars taking up their entire screen. And ask was always there, sometime multiple times.

Anything that installs a toolbar in your browser is malware.

Re:Flashback time

[OzPeter]

Are you serious? How can you survive in today's World Wide Web environment without a tailored toolbar experience that sends all your input and browsing data to its publisher? Ask and you shall receive.

Funny, I thought that was Google's business model.

Re:Flashback time

[TapeCutter]

Yes, except google is mind bogglingly popular precisely because its search results are not dictated by short sighted bean counters.

Re:Flashback time

[wernercd]

And it's not an ADDITIONAL search bar on top of the actual browser. If Google forced "Google Toolbar" down your throat, we'd have an apple-to-apple comparison.

There's a difference between using a built in search engine (with the ability to change it to Bing, if your heart desires)... and getting a search engine - and extra crap - installed without your knowledge.

We all know the average idiot doesn't know how to avoid getting tricked into installing it - and Ask and other companies go FAR out of their way to discourage saying no. It takes actual effort to not get dinged.

You can argue about how evil Google is... but they aren't acting like Ask does.

Re: Flashback time

[RavenLrD20k]

Yes. Google had a tool bar, no one is contesting that; but was it forced down your throat by google? If you downloaded any google software, did you have to specifically uncheck a box to not have it installed, or did you have to explicitly click on a link that said "Get the google toolbar" that was more than a few lines below the "Google Search" and "I'm Feeling Lucky" buttons where you couldn't accidentally miss the button by a few pixels to click on the link? If I remember right, it fit more the latter case I presented.

That's a lot different from putting a checkbox with 8pt Text in a 12pt body that you have to find and uncheck to prevent the installer from automatically installing the toolbar.

Too little, too tale

[Eloking]

Great, but how about marking as malware every bundled software that come with an installer? It doesn't seem complicated to me, it I install SomeProgram.exe then any other software unrelated to SomeProgram.exe should be marked as malware and removed.

It's hard to imagine, but

[bluegutang]

at this pace, within a couple years I'll like Microsoft more than I like Mozilla.

Good

[nine-times]

Good. It is malware. I can't think of a browser toolbar that I wouldn't consider to be malware to some degree. Has anyone in the past 5 years intentionally installed one of those things? My impression is that they only ever get installed because someone wasn't paying enough attention when they installed some crappy piece of software, and it was bundled in.

Re:Antitrust?

[in10se]

I've never seen the Bing toolbar bundled with anything (including any Microsoft products). As far as I can tell, it's a 100% opt-in manual download.

Re:Hmm

[JMJimmy]

Yup. The effing bing bar is something I delete on a weekly basis from several machines. Granted it's also stupid user syndrome.

Re:Office upload center

[Anonymous Coward]

The main issue *I* have with it, is that when I disable it - You know... I like to disable stuff I don't use - it refuses to stay disabled.

There are schedules, and protection tasks, and all sorts of other asshatery that will keep that process running. That's what you would normally call malware - something that refuses to stay disabled or removed.

Whack a mole

[retroworks]

All the "negative checkoff" (click NOT to install) and all the (CNET downloads.com e.g.) sites where banner ads mislead to click on them rather than the download file button you are looking for should be treated as malware, starting a long time ago.

That'll annoy Oracle

[Geeky]

Annoying Oracle can't be a bad thing. I can't believe they bundle it when Java is needed for so many enterprise apps - surely the reputational damage is worth more than the revenue from bundling the toolbar? It makes them look cheap and certainly not enterprise.

So yeah, good for Microsoft. They're doing some good things these days. Perhaps a bit like IBM when they were knocked off of their perch, MS now realise they need to actually produce good products and play nicer with customers.

Re:Antitrust?

[Joe U]

No, because the restricted behavior isn't bundling, it's changing search providers without prompting.

It's mentioned in the article in about every single sentence, so I can see how you missed it.

Yay.

[Demonoid-Penguin]

Ask finally got what it's been asking for all along

Next up - McAffee.

Then Java, then Ffflash. I can see we're gunna need a longer wall. And maybe a conveyor belt.

Re:Hmm

[Maritz]

Last time I saw the Ask toolbar, it couldn't be uninstalled through the control panel. For me, that's pretty much what makes it malware, in addition to the browser search hijacking of course.