Comments

• your_friend

  2010-03-18 14:10:59

  Mozilla has this help article confirming that the issue. Preferences may only be reset through a difficult manual process after AVG toolbar has been removed through another difficult manual process. RemoveMalware.com noted the inclusion of the Yahoo toolbar in March, 2008 for AVG version 8.0, and April of 2008. They recommended against the toolbar, which was an optional default install at the time, saying that it and most toolbars slow down browsing by 60%. Yahoo Answers recommends hiding and ignoring the toolbar, which leaves them the default engine. AVG says that removing the toolbar from version 8.5 does not remove "linkscanner", but does not mention the Yahoo preference jibe. Presumably, browsing performance is slowed down as all links are sent preemptively to Yahoo for inspection if AVG is installed. I seem to recall an outcry about this web destroying band-aide for Windows insecurity where AVG backed down but that can't be because 8.5 still had linkscan. AVG has this recent news release about linkscanner which is short on technical details. The Yahoo preference issue seems to have come up in AVG's user forums late last year. Users were annoyed at the loss of choice in search engines and thought this was good reason to abandon AVG. They should all move to free software which lacks credible malware threats and offers much better search engine user control through browsers like Konqueror and Iceweasel. Free software browsers do not suffer performance hits from having a search toolbar because free software searches are not spyware. .
  
  I was unaware of a Microsoft connection, other than the fact that the OS needs snake oil like AVG to reassure users, but clear anti-trust concerns are raised. It turns out that Microsoft has been shaking down all AV makers with patents since 2008. AVG claims to be the world's most popular AV, so their being targeted by Microsoft for manipulation would not be a surprise. All software vendors writing for Windows are subjugated by Microsoft in as much as Microsoft can sabotage their software at any time with a Windows Update. AV makers in particular have complained about Microsoft screwing them over in order to advance their own inferior security "profit center". Laughably, Jim Alchin once promissed that Windows would not need other AV besides those from Microsoft. At the same time, Microsoft was partnering up with AVG by giving them an advertisement within the ill fated Vista OS. The inadequacy of AV software for Windows was recently covered here on BN. Late last year there was a flurry of advertisements disguised as articles about the 9.0 version of AVG in the Microsoft friendly press comparing it to Microsoft's tools. Any competition between Microsoft and AV makers is a false contest where users aways lose and Windows always wins. If there is any new deal between AVG and Microsoft, the two of them are keeping it quiet, but AVG has long been a Microsoft Partner. There is a AVG write up of a new Global Strategic Analysis Group at AVG which touts LinkScanner and details many corporate shifts the company has had since 2006. The business details of AVG sound just like the business dealings of Microsoft with any other competitor, false promises, partnerships and betrayal. Where is the US DOJ? Computer security auditing is a real and useful task. Windows security is an oxymoron. These are unimportant details to the story at hand, which is the malware like behavior of AVG and Windows towards Firefox which is free software.
  
  The conclusion here is that Windows is a long time mess where Microsoft is able to manipulate all players to Microsoft's advantage, and that Ubuntu should stay away from the tar pit. Firefox on Windows is not so secure that users feel safe without AV software and AVG delivers users to Bing, just like IE. Browser choice is again proved to be an inadequate substitute for software freedom. Ubuntu should take note of the company it is keeping with their own Yahoo/Bing deal. If it leads to Microsoft, it's malware.

• phobos_anomaly

  2010-03-17 16:52:13

  I can verify the issue. Like lpbbear I also work in the repair business. I've been seeing it happen quite a bit in the last month.

• Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  2010-03-17 18:46:26

  Thanks, so it's not just Ubuntu that gets duped into Microsoft through Yahoo! (which helps Microsoft dodge antitrust calls).