uTorrent tricking users into changing default browser settings?(forum.utorrent.com)
forum.utorrent.com
uTorrent tricking users into changing default browser settings?
http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=139892
41 comments
Currently have the same problem on one of my machines. Luckily, I knew already about the culprit.
Really nasty stuff -- never using uTorrent again. Was already getting annoyed by latest updates and ads anyway/
To save me (still have to remove SearchProtect) and others here some time... any pointers to website or other reference on how to really remove this thing?
Really nasty stuff -- never using uTorrent again. Was already getting annoyed by latest updates and ads anyway/
To save me (still have to remove SearchProtect) and others here some time... any pointers to website or other reference on how to really remove this thing?
I'm afraid I can't help a great deal as it was a one-off brute force effort.
Most Googling finds pages telling you to download this or that scan and remove tools. But I'm wary of doing that.
What I manually did was roughly:
1) Use SysInternals Process Explorer to check for and kill any monitoring process
2) Use SysInternals Autoruns to find and remove all autorun info that I didn't recognise and to identify which executables may be doing it
3) Uninstall component through control panel
4) Restart
5) Change home page settings in browsers (restart, and observed that it only worked until the browser restarted)
6) Removed all browser plugins and extensions on all browsers, where I didn't recognise the extension
7) Repeat #5
8) Viewed source of Firefox browser config and still couldn't find it, but found Chrome had some crappy values referring to this stuff
9) Downloaded Chrome and Firefox, then uninstalled Chrome and Firefox. Deleted all local profile folders from %APP_DATA% and other hidden locations.
10) Manually entered the registry and deleted anything I identified as Search Protect, conduit, Firefox, and Chrome.
11) Manually delete any files identified by anything in the registry or earlier steps
12) Reboot
14) Install Chrome and Firefox
Thankfully my girlfriend doesn't use IE, so aside from purging all extensions and resetting all defaults, I didn't have to concentrate on that.
Interestingly, Chrome proved more susceptible to this than Firefox. Firefox scrubbed clean fairly quickly, but it was Chrome that really seemed determined to change search provider and home page. We chose to nuke her sync'd profile and the local copy entirely, and then install everything from fresh.
This was a huge time-suck, and it's been years since I wandered through the registry... not fun.
PS: And yes, I've told my girlfriend to organise her backups, ensure she's got everything and in a week or two we'll do the full reinstall thing. Sucks that she has to use Windows, but that's academia in the UK for you.
Most Googling finds pages telling you to download this or that scan and remove tools. But I'm wary of doing that.
What I manually did was roughly:
1) Use SysInternals Process Explorer to check for and kill any monitoring process
2) Use SysInternals Autoruns to find and remove all autorun info that I didn't recognise and to identify which executables may be doing it
3) Uninstall component through control panel
4) Restart
5) Change home page settings in browsers (restart, and observed that it only worked until the browser restarted)
6) Removed all browser plugins and extensions on all browsers, where I didn't recognise the extension
7) Repeat #5
8) Viewed source of Firefox browser config and still couldn't find it, but found Chrome had some crappy values referring to this stuff
9) Downloaded Chrome and Firefox, then uninstalled Chrome and Firefox. Deleted all local profile folders from %APP_DATA% and other hidden locations.
10) Manually entered the registry and deleted anything I identified as Search Protect, conduit, Firefox, and Chrome.
11) Manually delete any files identified by anything in the registry or earlier steps
12) Reboot
14) Install Chrome and Firefox
Thankfully my girlfriend doesn't use IE, so aside from purging all extensions and resetting all defaults, I didn't have to concentrate on that.
Interestingly, Chrome proved more susceptible to this than Firefox. Firefox scrubbed clean fairly quickly, but it was Chrome that really seemed determined to change search provider and home page. We chose to nuke her sync'd profile and the local copy entirely, and then install everything from fresh.
This was a huge time-suck, and it's been years since I wandered through the registry... not fun.
PS: And yes, I've told my girlfriend to organise her backups, ensure she's got everything and in a week or two we'll do the full reinstall thing. Sucks that she has to use Windows, but that's academia in the UK for you.
Once "they've" run malware on your machine it's no longer your machine and nothing can be trusted.
Wipe and re-install, then very carefully restore backups of data.
Wipe and re-install, then very carefully restore backups of data.
> Once "they've" run malware on your machine it's no longer your machine and nothing can be trusted. Wipe and re-install, then very carefully restore backups of data.
That is a general rule for malware that you do not know anything about.
However, the SearchProtect install bundled with µTorrent is only malware to the extent that it prevents you from changing your browser defaults. It is not believed to exhibit the other characteristics of malware. It is annoying, scammy, scummy, evil, etc. -- but it does not appear to compromise your system badly enough to require a reformat and clean install.
It's just one step beyond accidentally installing the Ask Toolbar with a new Java install. Yes, it is theoretically possible that it could've taken over your machine. But most likely not.
P.S. Take a look at the Wikipedia page for SearchProtect. Specifically, History and Talk. There's one high-up editor who's been stonewalling any attempt to add a Criticism section, on the basis that Wikipedia cannot link to user posts.
That is a general rule for malware that you do not know anything about.
However, the SearchProtect install bundled with µTorrent is only malware to the extent that it prevents you from changing your browser defaults. It is not believed to exhibit the other characteristics of malware. It is annoying, scammy, scummy, evil, etc. -- but it does not appear to compromise your system badly enough to require a reformat and clean install.
It's just one step beyond accidentally installing the Ask Toolbar with a new Java install. Yes, it is theoretically possible that it could've taken over your machine. But most likely not.
P.S. Take a look at the Wikipedia page for SearchProtect. Specifically, History and Talk. There's one high-up editor who's been stonewalling any attempt to add a Criticism section, on the basis that Wikipedia cannot link to user posts.
When it comes to what you should use as a replacement, I highly recommend Deluge as a replacement. It's totally open source, really well architected, has tons of adding for power users, and has a slick interface.
It's super robust. I have a server that's currently seeding 200+ torrents (all Linux distros and other freely available material) at a constant 80mbps+ and it is still very snappy, even on the very under powered machine that it's running on.
It's super robust. I have a server that's currently seeding 200+ torrents (all Linux distros and other freely available material) at a constant 80mbps+ and it is still very snappy, even on the very under powered machine that it's running on.
This reminds me of an argument given by my friend proposing that a person has a higher tendency to do bad to the people who we know are bad. Even your good-guy-Greg has an inclination (of sorts) to bring down/harass/make money off your scumbag-Steve, even when Steve's actions were inconsequential to Greg; which I thought was an apt observation from someone who thinks a lot in absolutes.
Maybe its the 'easy to get away with factor' or maybe its the karma kicking in.
My point is, torrent usage is synonymous to piracy, infringement and other illegal activities. So, perhaps it is this tendency that makes people at uTorrent think that it is not totally wrong to rip off people who are ripping off content & software makers. In my experience, I never fully trusted uTorrent. It is simply difficult to trust something that allows advertisement of malware, porn, fraudulent sites. It started off quite well, but then it has been on my watch list since quite some time now.
My point is, torrent usage is synonymous to piracy, infringement and other illegal activities. So, perhaps it is this tendency that makes people at uTorrent think that it is not totally wrong to rip off people who are ripping off content & software makers. In my experience, I never fully trusted uTorrent. It is simply difficult to trust something that allows advertisement of malware, porn, fraudulent sites. It started off quite well, but then it has been on my watch list since quite some time now.
For people having issues finding the files that need to be removed, look for anything related to Conduit; and remove that. SearchProtect and a few of the other names are not what the software is called in all cases it seems. I had to remove this from my wifes machine yesterday, and everything was related to a Conduit installer. No mention of SearchProtect.
uTorrent is gone in our case, I've moved her over to using Qget with our Qnap NAS and while it's not as feature rich as uTorrent it's a much better option. And it's one I can watch and control a little better as well!
uTorrent is gone in our case, I've moved her over to using Qget with our Qnap NAS and while it's not as feature rich as uTorrent it's a much better option. And it's one I can watch and control a little better as well!
This isn't malware. Malware is defined as software meant to disrupt or compromise your machine.
This is fuckyou-ware. Software that serves a reasonable purpose, but does it with utter contempt for the user.
This is fuckyou-ware. Software that serves a reasonable purpose, but does it with utter contempt for the user.
Software that is persistently forcing certain setting against the user's intention does sounds like malware, though.
With this particular case, this piece of software keeps resetting the user's start page to Yahoo even after the user actively reconfigure it.
With this particular case, this piece of software keeps resetting the user's start page to Yahoo even after the user actively reconfigure it.
Is there any response from uTorrent about this? Didn't see any posts by any admins or moderators in that thread; I was wondering if they said anything besides just closing the topic?
Don't use 'official' installers manually ever, for this same reason that they try to cheat you into 'agreeing' to something - use something like http://ninite.com/ that run the installers with the correct no-to-optional-malware options.
Use old versions of uTorrent. Before it was bought out by BitTorrent, Inc.
Now it's just another parasite on the internet.
Now it's just another parasite on the internet.
I would love to hear from Yahoo (hopefully from Marissa Mayer, or whoever authorised it at Yahoo), and from uTorrent. I was personally chearing for Yahoo's new breath of hope, under Mayer's leadership. This is a pretty crappy move. An apology would be enough.
I switched to rTorrent with ruTorrent a few years ago. I haven't used uTorrent since. It's perfect if you have an old machine laying around somewhere. Just whip out your favourite flavor of Linux and you're golden.
The only positive aspect of this, and make no mistake - this does not excuse their fishy behaviour - is that Yahoo has lead the way in defending its user's privacy against the NSA.
Report search protect to All anti-viruses, report to Yahoo!, report to their domain name provider and hosting providers.
Sounds like you need you some Deluge.
http://deluge-torrent.org/
http://deluge-torrent.org/
uTorrent started selling itself short quite a while ago.
I stopped using it about 2 yrs ago for similar reasons. It's a malware seeding garbage now.
I stopped using it about 2 yrs ago for similar reasons. It's a malware seeding garbage now.
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Simple: don't use uTorrent. Use Transmission instead:
http://www.transmissionbt.com
http://www.transmissionbt.com
Lots of people who like uTorrent simply use older versions, like the last version right before all the contested changes of v3 (v2.2.1 Build 25302 which you can get here[1]), or even some of the older 1.8x versions.
[1]: http://www.filehippo.com/download_utorrent/9859/
[1]: http://www.filehippo.com/download_utorrent/9859/
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I never use installers for these types of software, I prefer using portable versions where possible:
http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/utorrent_portable http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/qbittorrent_portable
I still use uTorrent Portbale, never had problems with toolbar installers or hijackers yet.
http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/utorrent_portable http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/qbittorrent_portable
I still use uTorrent Portbale, never had problems with toolbar installers or hijackers yet.
I've never upgraded from 2.2.1 and it still works great for me, except for the fact that I have to tell it not to update every time it loads.
You can turn that "do you want to update?" off: Options -> Preferences -> General and then uncheck "Check for updates automatically".
This is the beauty of an open protocol. No matter how much market share one client gets, if it screw up everyone just move to the next.
Imagine if everyone were using gshare and the company decided everyone had to use gshare+ and all the data was dependent on their servers/network. Good luck trying to keep an older version or trying an alternative after one company dominated the majority of the market.
Imagine if everyone were using gshare and the company decided everyone had to use gshare+ and all the data was dependent on their servers/network. Good luck trying to keep an older version or trying an alternative after one company dominated the majority of the market.
I recommend 2.2. AFAIR subsequent versions were released after the company got bought and I lost all faith.
On Windows, you're going to want Transmission-Qt Win: http://sourceforge.net/projects/trqtw/
(Although I personally prefer qBittorrent: http://www.qbittorrent.org)
(Although I personally prefer qBittorrent: http://www.qbittorrent.org)
While we're nominating our personal favorite BT clients, I want to make a warm mention of (the free and open) Deluge: http://deluge-torrent.org/
Works pretty well on Windows.
Works pretty well on Windows.
One of the Deluge feature I appreciate is its ability to run a Deluge service on a machine and being able to connect to it from any Deluge client (there is a GUI and a terminal client). In my experience it's less tedious than transmission service to set up.
You can use a remote connection to connect to uTorrent but it goes through uTorrent's server for authentication if my memory serves me well.
You can use a remote connection to connect to uTorrent but it goes through uTorrent's server for authentication if my memory serves me well.
I SO second this, and I raise you an excellent web-interface to boot. I have it running on a (headless) server and it's simply wonderful. On the tablet, I installed Torrent Manager which can connect to Deluge (and other daemons like Vuze) and it actually handles magnet links from the browser. I'm very happy about this setup.
uTorrent... I had to stop using uTorrent because it just stopped working. All torrents failed before they really started. I don't remember the error but I installed Tixati, which is also very functional (but now I have no Windows machine that I want to use for any torrent-related things anymore).
uTorrent... I had to stop using uTorrent because it just stopped working. All torrents failed before they really started. I don't remember the error but I installed Tixati, which is also very functional (but now I have no Windows machine that I want to use for any torrent-related things anymore).
transmission has an excellent web ui, that doesn't require installing anything on other machines
uTorrent has a webUI that allows you to log to it remotely; you have to install it on the PC that uTorrent resides on. You set the authentication details on said PC, so I doubt it goes through any sort of server, as it doesn't need to.
I am referring to the the remote connection which uses remote.utorrent.com. Of course I'd favour the webUI too.
I'm not a fan of the Transmission UI, and much prefer Deluge because its UI is much like uTorrent's but without all the bloat of more recent versions. It's become my standard client since I found out about it.
Deluge utterly chokes if you add in 2k+ torrents, unfortunately, as it's a really nicely designed program.
I've read sourceforge is pretty sketchy these days too bundling "helper" applications to any downloads.
there are other options too :)
Deluge - http://deluge-torrent.org/
Tixati - http://www.tixati.com/
qBittorrent - http://www.qbittorrent.org/
Deluge - http://deluge-torrent.org/
Tixati - http://www.tixati.com/
qBittorrent - http://www.qbittorrent.org/
Third for Deluge. uTorrent users will find it's interface very familiar.
Second for Deluge.
i'd say deluge over transmission
I absolutely love Deluge, specially the web interface.
Deluge is great.
Second for tixati. It's the fastest among what I have tried.
I love qBittorrent.
This also says a lot about Yahoo, by the way.
Windows users can turn to Free Download Manager[1]. It's open source (GPL)[2] and just works like uTorrent does. It supports HTTP, FTP, BitTorrent, audio/video preview, partial ZIP downloads, rate limiting, download scheduling, download from multiple mirrors and Chrome/IE/Firefox/Clipboard integration. Plus it "looks native."
I have been using it for years and have never gone wrong - it's extremely fast and because it's FOSS it is obviously ad/spyware/searchware free.
Edit: I am not affiliated with these guys in any way - just a happy user.
[1]: http://freedownloadmanager.org/ [2]: http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/freedownload
Windows users can turn to Free Download Manager[1]. It's open source (GPL)[2] and just works like uTorrent does. It supports HTTP, FTP, BitTorrent, audio/video preview, partial ZIP downloads, rate limiting, download scheduling, download from multiple mirrors and Chrome/IE/Firefox/Clipboard integration. Plus it "looks native."
I have been using it for years and have never gone wrong - it's extremely fast and because it's FOSS it is obviously ad/spyware/searchware free.
Edit: I am not affiliated with these guys in any way - just a happy user.
[1]: http://freedownloadmanager.org/ [2]: http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/freedownload
Yes, uTorrent has long been spyware/malware.
There was a case where the application started downloading some strange 5GB file that users did not add: http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?pid=728504
Other times it threw open a window from the application to a webpage with shady screensaver installers.
Using a closed-source torrent client in this climate is dangerous.
There was a case where the application started downloading some strange 5GB file that users did not add: http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?pid=728504
Other times it threw open a window from the application to a webpage with shady screensaver installers.
Using a closed-source torrent client in this climate is dangerous.
I'm not sure I would specifically "blame" uTorrent for this, it's the shame shady practice that a lot of software uses now to install other crapware. You need to be very careful when installing anything free so uncheck all those toolbar installers and things.
But, there are a lot of other torrent clients listed here, I will be trying some of these out :)
But, there are a lot of other torrent clients listed here, I will be trying some of these out :)
Agreed.
Recently i lost my htpc so i looked for one client for the tablet.
Of the dozen available, one supported 'only encrypted' mode. One/12
Recently i lost my htpc so i looked for one client for the tablet.
Of the dozen available, one supported 'only encrypted' mode. One/12
Since there are a lot of suggestions here, I'd like to add my personal favorite: http://baretorrent.org/
While it does not have all of the features of more heavy torrent clients, it does have a plugin system - although not many plugins exist yet. It's cross-platform, open source, and pretty light. The author has good priorities and is conscious about issues such as privacy, and having good installers that aren't bundled with questionable content.
While it does not have all of the features of more heavy torrent clients, it does have a plugin system - although not many plugins exist yet. It's cross-platform, open source, and pretty light. The author has good priorities and is conscious about issues such as privacy, and having good installers that aren't bundled with questionable content.
That actually looks really nice! Thanks for bringing this up, Kelet.
Ubuntu/Linux support too which is always nice to see!
Ubuntu/Linux support too which is always nice to see!
Thanks for posting this. I'd forgotten about Transmission.
Anecdotally, I had occasion to fire up a torrent client and grabbed uTorrent, what I used some time ago and found to be a good client. I was shocked to see how it had turned into crapware. It felt like sleazy garbage and I actually worried I'd inadvertently installed spyware on my machine.
Anecdotally, I had occasion to fire up a torrent client and grabbed uTorrent, what I used some time ago and found to be a good client. I was shocked to see how it had turned into crapware. It felt like sleazy garbage and I actually worried I'd inadvertently installed spyware on my machine.
The only reason I still use uTorrent is for the integrated RSS parser. Is there something like that for Transmission?
I use Automatic for RSS and just have it deposit torrents to Transmission's watch directory.
The transmission guys are against rss for some reason. Tixati and qBittorent have it.
Maybe http://flexget.com/
I use Flexget and Transmission. Wondeful combo. Keeps Plex well fed :>
I was going to say just this, but found this comment. I was an Azureus user, but they jumped the shark. Then I switched to uTorrent, and was delighted that the resource use on my computer went down a ton. Then uTorrent started getting bloatware I didn't want, but by then, Transmission had gotten good.
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whenever i get utorrent, i always find out that i've "chosen" to install a toolbar.
Or Tixati!
http://www.tixati.com/
http://www.tixati.com/
That's what I use, but keep in mind it's closed source (not sure what their business model is)
this is why "freeware" can't be trusted, the threat of a fork keeps open source developers honest
I never updated uTorrent, I run 2.2.1 so either find it or I can probably send you the exe.
For other readers: The consensus on the reddit thread was that 2.2.1 was the last good version.
IIRC some people even run the older 1.8.x versions, for reasons which escape me at the moment.
same here, the trick is to not upgrade and turn auto-update check off
Here is version 2.2.1 http://www.filehippo.com/download_utorrent/9859/
Here is version 2.2.1 http://www.filehippo.com/download_utorrent/9859/
Yup, this is where I got it -- it's the last build before v3, which had a bunch of really questionable changes.
I'm surprised someone is trying to distribute a "uTorrent Light" with all the adware and bloat stripped out.
It's closed source -- how would you do that? Most people settle for using one of the older versions.
Well, you may not remember Kazaa Lite. But, basically, all you would need to do is unpack the installer with a tool that creates installer programs. You would basically need to decompress it, strip out all the adware or anything else you didn't want, create a new installer and you're done!
Kazaa lite had a lot of other tweaks and hacks to the exe, which I assumed used some sort of decompiler to essentially "crack" it and modify it in certain ways. Then, along with registry patches and changes to other libraries it used made some fundamental changes to how it worked and connected to the network.
Someone wouldn't need to do this for uTorrent if they just wanted vanilla uTorrent and nothing else, but the possibilities exist.
Kazaa lite had a lot of other tweaks and hacks to the exe, which I assumed used some sort of decompiler to essentially "crack" it and modify it in certain ways. Then, along with registry patches and changes to other libraries it used made some fundamental changes to how it worked and connected to the network.
Someone wouldn't need to do this for uTorrent if they just wanted vanilla uTorrent and nothing else, but the possibilities exist.
uTorrent is a horrendous bloat, anyway. Personally I used rTorrent for a while (minimal ncurses interface, very appealing to me) but later switched to Transmission.
I've also used Deluge, but there's nothing too special about it in my eyes.
I've also used Deluge, but there's nothing too special about it in my eyes.
I'm a big fan of rtorrent, I just wish that it was a proper server/client. Not a fan of daemonizing things by running them in screen.
Surprising that no-one is talking about Yahoo and their tactics to get more users. I am sure SearchProtect and Yahoo! here have a deal to push as many default searches as possible to drive revenue.
The comment thread attacks Yahoo! for it's dirty tactics, but the difference is that we kind of expect this crap from Yahoo!. People are miffed at uTorrent because it was an application they trusted. It's more of a betrayal.
If a thief breaks into your home and steals your TV, you're pissed that your TV was stolen but that's what you expect of thieves. If your best friend does it, it adds that extra layer of betrayal and it adds the feeling of shame and stupidity for ever having trusted them.
If a thief breaks into your home and steals your TV, you're pissed that your TV was stolen but that's what you expect of thieves. If your best friend does it, it adds that extra layer of betrayal and it adds the feeling of shame and stupidity for ever having trusted them.
These kind of shady deals can't be good in the long run. If you work at a company that suggests this, make sure to voice your opinion.
Someone should start a site that allows users to vote on a software company's trust factor. :)
Someone should start a site that allows users to vote on a software company's trust factor. :)
Yahoo has been doing these "Search Distribution Deals" for many years, as long as I can remember in fact. Bing was at one point paying $20+ per toolbar install when they were trying to gain market share. Google has done paid toolbar distribution as well.
The reason it is still around is because it is so damn effective.
The reason it is still around is because it is so damn effective.
Even Sun installs some kind of ad toolbar in Java!
OT, but: you get a toolbar-less installer if you go through oracle.com instead of java.com.
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/ (choose the JRE download)
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/ (choose the JRE download)
That's Oracle now. Sun weren't such dicks.
yeah the Ask Toolbar is crap but at least that's opt-in... this is search hijacking.
It's opt-out, unless they changed it recently. I've lost count of how many times I've had to uncheck that checkbox.
First Vuze, then uTorrent. It looks like the life cycle of any popular torrent application is:
- Starts very light, bare bones, downloads torrents and that's all
- Gets bloated with more and more features that nobody wants
- Partners with a shady company
- Dies
Off to alternatives I go.
- Starts very light, bare bones, downloads torrents and that's all
- Gets bloated with more and more features that nobody wants
- Partners with a shady company
- Dies
Off to alternatives I go.
Azureus/Vuze was never lightweight, and does not appear to have died. And uTorrent didn't begin to bloat out until after it was acquired by BitTorrent, Inc..
Edit: I think by partners with shady company you mean the malware company, not BitTorrent, Inc.. Just like Vuze has 3rd-party malware. Coincidentally (?), some Vuze malware reports mention Yahoo! being surreptitiously enabled just like the article.
Edit: I think by partners with shady company you mean the malware company, not BitTorrent, Inc.. Just like Vuze has 3rd-party malware. Coincidentally (?), some Vuze malware reports mention Yahoo! being surreptitiously enabled just like the article.
Agreed. Azureus was consistently the most bloated, slowest torrent client available. Vuze was an expansion of that.
It's not just torrent applications - this is the lifecycle for a lot of free apps. Eventually you've got to pay the bills, and if no one is willing to pay for your app then it's either time to insert ads or crapware or both.
Just like AV programs for windows! I'm at the point where I would pay software developers to just stop touching things (cept for bugs)
What's wrong with Vuze? I'm using it (occasionally) and it's never done anything suspicious that I'd notice
Maybe they should sell "track day" versions of their apps as an in-app purchase?
Damn; and I blamed Firefox for this.
Why would Firefox do this if they get referral money from using Google as their default search?
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2011/12/20/mozilla-and-google-...
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2011/12/20/mozilla-and-google-...
Firefox was the last thing I remembered installing before this happened; I'd forgotten about uTorrent.
Wasn't uTorrent The Best Thing Ever when it first hit the scene? I seem to recall it was this application. It was about a 93k executable that didn't need to be installed. Just download and run. It was my go to torrent client of choice during my Windows days. Sad to see it become this.
Indeed. I started using uTorrent back in 2006. It was VERY lightweight, and had a good and detailed documentation. And then things started to change: custom UI, styles, Ads, Video Player, Market (or something like an App Store)...
I met the creator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludvig_Strigeus) the other day, and he LOVES to micro-optimize. He's a genius, and made a vere light uTorrent (it was supposed to be a really light bittorrent client) and then he sold it to bittorrent and stopped developing it (and that's why it stopped being lightweight).
Awesome and interesting guy.
Awesome and interesting guy.
:(
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As annoyed as I am by the reactions here (uTorrent didn't maliciously install adware behind anyone's back), I moved to Mac in 2009 and stayed there until I decided to build an HTPC for my living room. First thing I did was install uTorrent, and I was confronted with so much bloat. There are ads INSIDE the torrent list, and there are options to stream video/music. Completely unexpected.
From what I understand, there hasn't been a client that's truly taken its place.
From what I understand, there hasn't been a client that's truly taken its place.
> From what I understand, there hasn't been a client that's truly taken its place.
For myself and my brother, Transmission has handily replaced uTorrent. Simple, downloads torrents, lets me make new ones to send files between friends, and that's it. Perfect!
For myself and my brother, Transmission has handily replaced uTorrent. Simple, downloads torrents, lets me make new ones to send files between friends, and that's it. Perfect!
Like others have noted, if you were happy with uTorrent in 2009, just use an older version.
There's really not much different with torrents in the last few years.
Magnet link support is the only thin I can think of.
There's really not much different with torrents in the last few years.
Magnet link support is the only thin I can think of.
What about security vulns
The new version runs ten ad networks' code.. I'd bet the 93k one is safer
Magnet links work fine in 2.2.1
you should google utorrent toolbar mystery. many people have chosen not to install the toolbar and ended up with a toolbar.
So glad someone posted on this bullshit. Not only has uTorrent started doing this, but BBEdit 10 and some other previously not super shady software has too.
What is BBEdit doing?
I just tried installing and after declining the offer the installer hung. Buh bye.
Simple solution: go back to using the old, barebones, simple, fast utorrent v 2.2.1
http://www.filehippo.com/download_utorrent/9859/
runs fast, no ads, no issues, just works!
http://www.filehippo.com/download_utorrent/9859/
runs fast, no ads, no issues, just works!
Remember to keep watching during install though, this will still try and install browser add-ins and get you to download a movie.
Hey thanks for piggybacking onto my response, classy.
Wow. People are actually angry in that thread because they didn't look closely at the setup steps.
Let's be clear here: the user was still given a choice, but the user "trusted" uTorrent to not force them to make one. Give me a break.
Let's be clear here: the user was still given a choice, but the user "trusted" uTorrent to not force them to make one. Give me a break.
"You secretly installed crap I didn't want on my computer!"
"No, I didn't. I threw up a button that you'd never click on purpose hoping you'd accidentally click it and give me 'permission' to install crap you didn't want on your computer."
"Oh, good. For a minute there I thought you were some kind of scumbag."
(ethics of bundling undesired programs in installers notwithstanding, users are asserting that the thing didn't just change their defaults but also kept resetting their defaults even after the user changed it back. Not cool even if the user installed it entirely on purpose)
"No, I didn't. I threw up a button that you'd never click on purpose hoping you'd accidentally click it and give me 'permission' to install crap you didn't want on your computer."
"Oh, good. For a minute there I thought you were some kind of scumbag."
(ethics of bundling undesired programs in installers notwithstanding, users are asserting that the thing didn't just change their defaults but also kept resetting their defaults even after the user changed it back. Not cool even if the user installed it entirely on purpose)
Ah yes, the time-tested virtue of taking advantage of the naive.
It installs whether you pick yes or no.
edit: "Do you want to install chrome? yes/no", no -> "you'll now install toolbar with utorrent. Next >", no yes/no
else:
"Do you want to install chrome? yes/no", yes -> utorrent + chrome
What you're offered is based on a number of things like IP location and computer versions
edit: "Do you want to install chrome? yes/no", no -> "you'll now install toolbar with utorrent. Next >", no yes/no
else:
"Do you want to install chrome? yes/no", yes -> utorrent + chrome
What you're offered is based on a number of things like IP location and computer versions
I made the same mistake a few weeks ago because it's especially deceitful. uTorrent disguises this SearchProtect program with what appears to be a ToS agreement page after you've already rejected another piece of crapware, making you assume you're already in the clear.
To be fair, utorrent used to be trustworthy before being b ought by the despicable Bittorrent Inc.
What's despicable about Bittorrent, Inc.? They seem like a very pleasant company to me. I won't be using any of their products because I generally don't use closed source stuff, but I'm grateful for their protocol.
I got bitten by this yesterday when I updated. I didn't expect it at all and only realized I had installed something a fraction of a second after I clicked what looked like a Next button... Went to Control Panel and uninstalled as soon as I noticed an icon in the taskbar notification area.
I do disagree with the strategy of bundling typically unwanted software in with installers.
But as someone who's installed Java numerous times and never ended up with the Ask Toolbar I don't have much sympathy for people who can't pay attention to what's presented on the screen.
But as someone who's installed Java numerous times and never ended up with the Ask Toolbar I don't have much sympathy for people who can't pay attention to what's presented on the screen.
Switch to Deluge[1]! It's Free Software, and is so similar to uTorrent you won't notice the difference.
The day uTorrent pushed the update that tried to install a browser extension I was absolutely done with them. I do not support malware in any shape or form.
[1] http://deluge-torrent.org/
The day uTorrent pushed the update that tried to install a browser extension I was absolutely done with them. I do not support malware in any shape or form.
[1] http://deluge-torrent.org/
Not new, though. uTorrent install has been shipping with crap for a while now.
This is why I love Linux. Every generic piece of software comes with no BS attached.
For example, on Windows, if you want to mount an ISO you have to download some shady piece of software, the installer of which comes bundled with n toolbars. In Linux it's a matter of a simple one-line command...
While that was super annoying for years, Windows 8+ natively supports ISO mounting[1].
[1] http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mis_laboratory/archive/2012/08/30/mo...
[1] http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mis_laboratory/archive/2012/08/30/mo...
Ah, the heady days when merely having an ISO mounter on windows caused cheat-detection software to ban you.
Adware goes to where there are a lot of non tech savvy users. If desktop Linux gets more traction, you'll see such search hijacking on there too. Note that this story is about search hijacking on OS X, not Windows.
exactly. As soon as there are many users, people who intend to "monetize" starts creeping in, and they are always mighty powerful.
The use of a package manager/app store might help prevent that though. They won't be able to bundle crapware in their installers.
How? Every package manager that I've seen so far allows installations of locally downloaded packages. Some will even helpfully download all dependencies. That's a good thing in general, however, the package could just as well contain adware/spyware. And every package format that I know of supports post-install scripts, those could easily change configuration settings. Since package install runs as root that added layer of security doesn't help here.
uTorrent went bad ages ago...ive been using an old, solid version (around 2.7?) for years, no reason to change.
It was a beautiful bit of software.
It was a beautiful bit of software.
Wow, this is an unusual step for Yahoo. Who would think that a hijack process that tempers with user's browser settings is a good idea? Hello, Marissa Mayer?
As for uTorrent, it's been going down this path for a while, gradually introducing crap into the app. And this one is the last for me, as well.
Btw, apparently, they turned off registration on the forum to ward off the mounting complains. When I go to https://forum.utorrent.com/register.php, I'm greeted with Get lost spammer, we don't need your kind here. And of course the topic is closed. Well done.
As for uTorrent, it's been going down this path for a while, gradually introducing crap into the app. And this one is the last for me, as well.
Btw, apparently, they turned off registration on the forum to ward off the mounting complains. When I go to https://forum.utorrent.com/register.php, I'm greeted with Get lost spammer, we don't need your kind here. And of course the topic is closed. Well done.
If memory serves, uTorrent lost trust-ability when it got sold. IIRC, that means post version 1.6.1 it became a concern and began to needlessly bloat. Prior to that is was a brilliant bit of software.
1.6.1 is light weight, unmolested, and still worth using.
1.6.1 is light weight, unmolested, and still worth using.
Released in Feb 2007, and the last version worth using.
This is exactly why I have such a love/hate relationship with BitTorrent Sync. I use it a lot, and it works so great, but I so wish it were open source.
I havent upgrade utorrent is years because of how bad BitTorrent Inc. made it.
Oh, man, this one ultimately was the last straw that broke my old XP box's back. I accidentally clicked through the set-up, and I didn't really have the sysadmin chops to fix it at that point. Whatever hitched a ride on search protect slowed that machine to a crawl. I ultimately ended up installing linux on it, but it's just not the same anymore.
Use qBittorrent instead if you like the feature-set of uTorrent. In particular, qBittorrent's UI is modeled after uTorrent. It is open source and works on Linux, OS X, Windows, FreeBSD and OS/2(!), supports sequential downloading (aka download in order or streaming) and has an optional web UI. http://www.qbittorrent.org/
Actually qBittorrent seems to be a good alternative. Let's see how good it is compared to uTorrent.
I was looking for a simple replacement for uTorrent for a while now. I have been using linux for years now and was surprised how awful it became while I was off windows.
I was looking for a simple replacement for uTorrent for a while now. I have been using linux for years now and was surprised how awful it became while I was off windows.
I couldn't figure out why all of her search and homepage settings had changed, and how they were so resilient that they were re-applied.
I did find SearchProtect, and eventually managed to remove it (uninstalls, + registry hacking, + force deleting files, + nuking the browser installs and re-installing).
But I hadn't figured out where it had come from as my girlfriend didn't believe that she'd installed anything and although I saw uTorrent I thought nothing of that since I didn't believe it installed such `add-ons`.
For those who encounter this, SearchProtect is really nasty. Really hard to remove.