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Comments:
-
- on Wed 13 Jan 2010
- 08:34:15 PM UTC
Rogue for sure
Bob,
Very insightful and you provide proof that this indeed is rogue software. Thanks for the guest blog bro!
Frank J
TechJaws.com -
- on Wed 13 Jan 2010
- 09:39:53 PM UTC
Hey BobJam !!
Yeah, Lurk Mode for sure! BTW, Congrats on the award for this year and a Happy one also.
Now, not to dispute your analysis of this software (you certainly don't have to convince me) but, have you tried another one of those Miracle cure software right after your test with RegistryBooster ?? Say , one like RegCure or even the registry cleaner in CCleaner just to compare the results ?
I might be inclined to try it myself but, this is a new install of Vista and would like to use the upgrade disk to 7 so, I don't want to mess anything up by installing software that might just compromise my upgrade.
Once the upgrade done , I will think about it. Since you already have skewed up your install of windows, it might be a good test to run. What do you think ??
Would be interesting to see the results from others. To help you out in your quest to find any good regcleaner, here is a site that tested the "Top Ten" regcleaners.
http://registry-repair-software-review.toptenreviews.com/The site is also considered to be safe by WOT users :
http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/registry-repair-...You know how I feel about registry cleaners and this site and all of it's test software should be considered rogues . Well, maybe not the site but, any software that promotes this kind of cleaning.
Athlonite.
Your help is always needed.
-
- on Wed 13 Jan 2010
- 11:47:43 PM UTC
....
*.toptenreviews.com don't "test" anything - they're paid affiliates and thus, biased.
If you *need* (and no-one needs one) a registry cleaner, use RegCleaner (freeware, and available from my archives), CCleaner (non-toolbar version) or NTREGOPT
Regards
Steven Burn
Ur I.T. Mate Group / hpHosts
it-mate.co.uk / hosts-file.net -
- on Thu 14 Jan 2010
- 01:26:35 PM UTC
Other tests
Hey Mike,
"have you tried another one of those Miracle cure software right after your test with RegistryBooster ?? Say , one like RegCure or even the registry cleaner in CCleaner just to compare the results ?"
Short answer: No
Long answer: The scan itself (which took a long time), making screenshots (and bouncing back and forth in the VM and running the scan again to take screenshots I forgot to take the first time), posting the screenshots and then transferring them here, composing the post here, etc., was tedious to begin with. I finally decided that I had enough evidence to post, and dropped the whole project . . . Uniblue and RegistryBooster was NOT worth the time after I saw that "high Damage level" warning.
I actually did take a screenshot of the second scan BECAUSE it showed a DIFFERENT error number (something like 600+ I think) and intended to post that just to show this nonsense comes up with arbitrary errors in a high number just to scare the noob into making the purchase . . . but somehow I lost the darn thing.
That was when I decided "this isn't worth it, I have enough already!"
I thought about running CCleaner (I would have had to download it, because not only do I not have any registry cleaner on my VM , , , and don't see the need for one there . . . I don't use registry cleaners anyway) to compare, but again "it wasn't worth the time".
"To help you out in your quest to find any good regcleaner"
As I said, I don't use that crap anyway, so there is no "quest"."Well, maybe not the site but, any software that promotes this kind of cleaning."
You're making me think I didn't make my point. The issue was not registry cleaners (perhaps I shouldn't have chosen "RegistryBooster" as the rogue example), but the fact that the Uniblue site itself promotes rogues, hence my low rating of the Uniblue main site itself.Hey Steve,
Echo on the "no-one needs one" thing.
And as far as paid shills, the issue lies in the explosion of spam-review sites which are nothing more then websites promoting affiliate links under the guise of an official " review " site. Their main goal is to accomplish one thing - to send you to the site they are promoting and hoping you buy the product they are selling - if you do, they get up to a 75% cut of the sale. In other words, their reviews are up for sale - and are not anything but thinly veiled sales pitches. For example, if you do a search for the term " Paid Survey " or " Registry Repair " you'll notice that the paid listings all include sites that say " read our review " or " warning, don't download anything until you read this..."
So echo on your comment there too.
(BTW, Mike, that review site you linked to lists Uniblue's "RegistryBooster" as being in the top ten. That alone is enough to tell me they are bogus shill reviews for everything).
And I don't want this thread to morph into a discussion of the virtues of registry cleaners (enough has already been said on that topic . . . just do a search here on WOT) . . . as I said, I probably shouldn't have used a "RegistryBooster" evaluation to show that Uniblue promotes rogues. By doing that I've probably hooked a lot of registry cleaner advocates . . . that was not my intention.
P.S. "Congrats on the award for this year and a Happy one also"
Thanks, Mike . . . and same to you. Now back to lurking. -
- on Thu 14 Jan 2010
- 09:24:00 PM UTC
Hey BobJam !
Yeah, I got the sense of your post but, I didn't make it obvious enough that my answer was more sarcasm than serious. Hence :
"To help you out in your quest to find any good regcleaner" !!!
I know darn well what your thoughts are on this subject and was just kidding when I suggested you look at reviews.You could've taken a host of sites and the results would be the same. ParetoLogic comes to mind.
I made a search for "Registry Cleaner Reviews" on both Google and Bing. The results are a bit funny. I liked Bing when it first came out but now, not so sure :
Google search :
Bing search :
Notice the amount of RED donuts on Bing as compared to Google which has at least three GREEN donuts.
Wonder how much it costs to have your site on the first search page??
Anyways, there are no lack of sites that review (and most likely affiliates) on the web.
Don't stay in Lurk Mode too long. Skills tend to rust out faster when not in use.
Athlonite
Your help is always needed.
-
- on Thu 14 Jan 2010
- 02:51:29 PM UTC
re: Uniblue (again)
An email from Uniblue to a colleague offering payment for placing a Uniblue link on his site
My curiosity is...
How did Uniblue obtain your colleague's email address and what site is it they want to slap their links on?Everything else; agreed.
-------
WOT Services Ltd. - gives us safety through Web of Trust.
WOT Community - gives us security through unity.
Thank you all
- G7W -
- on Fri 15 Jan 2010
- 12:59:56 AM UTC
PM
Will PM you on this . . .
(Hmmmm . . . looks like somebody left an open strong in the thread)
Hey Mike,
Skills are always rusty, even when I'm using them . . . that comes with age. And everything else is rusty too . . . bones, brain, etc.
-
- on Wed 31 Mar 2010
- 05:55:44 AM UTC
Microsoft Gold Certified
- Uniblue is MGC for: processlibrary.com
source: Microsoft partners directory - Uniblue Systems Ltd is a provider of leading software utilities products designed to deliver superior performance, protection and security to PC users in the home, SoHo and Business markets. The company launched its acclaimed Process Library in 2000. As ProcessLibrary.com it is recommended by many IT experts as the definitive reference point for checking the functionality of what is – and should not be – inside a Windows operating PC.
- disclaimer:
- The partners listed in Solution Finder are members of the Microsoft Partner Program. Microsoft, however, does not endorse the partners or their software, solutions, services and training listed on this site. Microsoft disclaims any and all liability arising out of your use of the partners software, solutions, services and training listed on the site. All software, solutions, services and training are provided “as is” and without warranty unless provided by the authoring partner.
Interesting how they misuse the MGC logo and associate it to software they produce while inferring that Microsoft endorses these products...
-
- on Thu 01 Apr 2010
- 01:46:50 AM UTC
I-Obit, Uniblue-ware by another company.
IObit Advanced System Care 3 & IObit Security 360 © (freeware-builds) pull the same deal, "Found 100 problems, can fix 50 on the freeware build, will fix all if U buy". I blow that off and run them anyway. IObit Security 360 updates every 2-3 days virus sigs, has pegged a few hi-threat bugs even Avast/AVG/A-Squared, et al missed. So I let it do it's freeware thing and it does help keep my XP running better, faster & cleaner. In conjunction with other maintenance/malware-checking progs of course. Freeware Cons= wont fix all it finds unless you pay. Freeware Pros = will quarantine/delete bugs it finds, defrags, tweaks core settings, corrects bad reg errors, cleans junk and a tad more.
Uniblue rates what it gets from WOT. It finds a LOT, great GUI makes U think it is cat's whiskers suite, then it fixes very little unless U pay, I used it, hated it and it's gonzo!
IMHO the only reason it showed up on so many legit web-sites is SO many folks freaked and paid so they could power adverti$e all over the WWW.
5-6 good feeware progs do what Uniblue or IObit will do in one pack U have to pay 4 to get the power-builds of either.
Classify Both: 'Tease-Ware'.M_W
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- on Thu 01 Apr 2010
- 06:14:18 PM UTC
Mixed feelings on the subject
For some context, I first saw their version of an enhanced task manager in 2003, back when it was just liutilities. I wasn't entusiastic, but it wasn't a bad product. Just not something I'd pay money for, when an almost-as-good free tool (Process Explorer) was available.
Then Uniblue bought the product and it went downhill. Mainly as a result of the marketing and promotion tactics Uniblue employs across its entire range of products.
Does Uniblue appear to overstate the risk of certain "detections" its products make on installed PCs? Definitely.
Does it lock you into the same traps that true Rogue Antivirus products do? Not even close.
Calling them a rogue company devalues the term "rogue" -- they are merely sleazy. It's not a good thing, but it's also not nearly as bad as Antivirus 2010, Security Tool, ad nauseum. These products are known to infect your master boot record, rootkit themselves to prevent removal, and engage in out-and-out fraud and deception.
I think Uniblue deserves the yellow donut. I also think Uniblue deserves a chance to defend themselves publicly about their company's behavior over the past 18 months, which has been shameful to say the least. I'd be very interested to read what they have to say about the subject.
-=A
-
- on Thu 01 Apr 2010
- 11:43:56 PM UTC
IObit is Stealing What?
I would guess if I were stupid enough to pay IObit any money, they may sell me a cyber-Edsel I would deserve. But when I scroll down the list of software clearing-house URL's from major.geeks to softpedia.com to download.cnet.com, downloads.zdnet.com, all the names we know so well I see the WOT green icon for IObit products on most of the larger sites, and a yellow one/two next to http://www.iobit.com , lower than good score on a few trust issues. I don't' trust 'em either when they promise the world at the end of scan..BUT only if I buy there product$$$. But they do more than just alert U to probs, ala Uniblue, there is a partial fix in IObit ware that does work without paying 4 anything and if it catches/destroys just 1 bad-news Trojan it is worth running. To date it has caught/killed many more than 1 that found it's way into my network.
Guess if I haven't paid them Jack to use the freeware they make and it IS catching/quarantining some evil virii that others with much more familiar names like McAfee or Trend miss I am not losing $'s just bugs using a product that does a whole better job than the arch villain of scareware: Uniblue, which finds ALL the problems, even finds ones that R not real problems (flushing *.tmp files), fixes nothing, freaks some into a Uniblue panic buy and is all over the place. Couple of good freeware utilities do a much better job of cleaning up messes, flushing the bugs & fixing screwy registries than pay-4-fixes ALL wizards. So what is I-OBIT-ware nicking? Let's stick to that enlightening 1-word statement made in this thread only & follow thru 'K? :-) If I use it I would like someone with more knowledge then my mere 1/4 century IT use to clue me in, honestly. Already figured-out by using it that IMHO Uniblue is the low end of the plethora of pay-4-fix progs.M-W
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- on Fri 02 Apr 2010
- 09:47:04 AM UTC
the bright side
Hi Folks,
Let us look at the bright side of the Uniblue fiasco. For the most part, you can quickly tell if a site or a journalist has integrity by whether or not they cut a $ deal with Uniblue.
e.g. GAOTD (giveaway of the day) recently enhanced their Uniblue aggressiveness, so they likely cut a bigger deal, letting their users get messed up.
The general rule of thumb - aggressive Uniblue positioning - the site is in it for the $, not the safety and security and health of the user's puters.
Shalom,
Steven Avery -
- on Fri 02 Apr 2010
- 12:12:37 PM UTC
it for the $
It is an unfortunate fact of modern life that most businesses are in it for the money. Personally, I look forward to the day when everyone has the confidence to use Linux OS and open source software, thus removing all profit motives. Of course, it does cost time and money to develop software but I would favour donations rather than fixed prices, and if the software is any good then people will probably be quite happy to donate whatever they think it's worth or can afford. Then companies such as Uniblue will have to change their ways or disappear.
Uniblue (again)
An email from Uniblue to a colleague offering payment for placing a Uniblue link on his site has prompted me to come out of lurk mode and resurrect the Uniblue discussion.
This has been discussed before . . . if you do a search on "Uniblue" here on WOT, you'll get 8 hits.
Uniblue has a yellow rating, but it is, and has been, a controversial item. Some swear by it, and yet others (myself included) think it's nothing but a scam. (And I'll detail why I have that opinion in a bit).
It is a particularly devious scam, IMO, because Uniblue leverages their "process library", a legit product, to appear as a legit site . . . while at the same time promoting their rogue products.
I evaluated "RegistryBooster", a Uniblue product, and a prime example, IMO, of the rogues they offer.
("RegistryBooster" is a registry cleaner, and registry cleaners are a whole 'nother controversial topic and not in the scope of this post. They have been discussed here often.)
First of all, when you click on the Uniblue "Products" tab, you get redirected to "liutilities.com", another yellow rated site and this is actually a Uniblue site:
Now here's the rogue part. Running RegistryBooster, I got 556 errors and a progress bar that indicated those errors were of a "high Damage level". Without getting into the virtues, or lack thereof, of registry cleaners, the "high Damage level" warning implies that these things are NOT trivial ("trivial" being things like orphaned DLL's and missing help files . . . which is pretty common but not a show stopper):
When a noob sees something like "high Damage level", they're inclined to think this is disastrous (never mind that if your registry actually had that many serious errors, the machine probably wouldn't even boot) and purchase the retail version of RegistryBooster to remove those (dubious) errors:
Hence my opinion that "RegistryBooster" is scareware and a rogue. (And RegistryBooster is "from uniblue", as the above screenshot shows).
I've not dug into the pedigree of Uniblue (such as blacklists, whois info, and robtex . . . and my suspicion is that all of that would be "clean"), but rather just run "RegistryBooster" (in my Windows VM within Ubuntu) to satisfy myself that Uniblue does indeed promote scams/rogues. I might not have such a poor opinion of Uniblue if it weren't for that "high Damage level" indication in "RegistryBooster". But then how else are they going to convince you that you should pay for removal instead of using a free registry cleaner like CCleaner?
EDIT: I had written "less than trivial" and realized that was the opposite of what I meant. So I changed it to "NOT trivial".