Dealio Toolbar ???

[Bigaldoc]

Earlier this afternoon I was doing my usual Saturday "housekeeping" prior to my weekly backup full image. Disk cleanup, and so on, ending with a CHKDSK which requires rebooting the C: drive.

After the reboot, I fired up Firefox to continue browsing until time for the backup to start. What the... ? I suddenly found a new toolbar in Fx called "Dealio" and I have no idea how it got installed! As careful as I am with ANY installation I do, NOT to allow ANY toolbars, this one has me bamboozled.

I'm not gonna put the link to it here because WOT gives it a RED (unsafe) rating. However, a Google of several reputable sites says it's a good deal for internet shopping. Not for me it isn't. I used Revo to get rid of it and the only thing I can conclude is that maybe Google Chrome dragged it along without my knowledge.

Anyone else have any knowledge about what the "carrier" might be?

[HansV]

See The Adware List. Apparently the Dealio toolbar piggybacks with some freeware. I also found it mentioned in connnection with Free FLV Converter.

[Bigaldoc]

Thanks Hans. I don't see it mentioned in anything I happen to use.

Here's a clip of stuff I've "installed" in the past week or two, in descending order from Revo. I think Google Chrome must be the culprit, but don't know how to verify that except to remove Chrome from my system which I really don't want to do.

What I DO NOT understand is how Google Chrome ALWAYS appears at the TOP of my Revo list, chronologically, and I do NOT reinstall Chrome, period. I've looked through ALL the Chrome settings and can't find any place to shut off any auto updating. Can anyone advise me on that one?

[HansV]

To turn off auto-updating, you need to add a registry setting:

- Locate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Update
- Add a new DWORD value named DisableAutoUpdateChecksCheckboxValue and set it to 1 to disable automatic updates or 0 to re-enable them.

The usual warnings for being cautious when editing the registry apply.

[Bigaldoc]

Thanks Hans. Late yesterday while surfing about it, I also came across a tip that said you can turn off Chrome auto-update from inside the browser. It's in about:plugins, so I'm giving that a try first to see if it works before making the regedit.

I'm pretty sure this Dealio thing must've come from Chrome updating itself. As you can see in my other graphic, the most recent software adds or updates are pretty clean. I even re-installed Opera and Recuva to see if I missed a tick-box the first time around. And of course, I think you're familiar with FastStone and (so far) I've not known them to be devious like this.

More later... BTW, I don't know if the Dealio thing is bad or not. Might be helpful for some, but I just don't want or need it.

[HansV]

I'm sure that FastStone doesn't include drive-by downloads.

I don't think the Dealio toolbar is malware, but if you don't need it, it's better to remove it - the more add-ons, the more chance of problems.

[Bigaldoc]

Aside from malware, my main reasoning for my dislike of toolbars is screen clutter with junk I don't need. I often use one of the computers at my favorite nursing home for tutoring someone. Those three computers have so many toolbars piled one on top of the other that there's very little territory left for the actual browser window. The poor old folks who use 'em don't know that they can deny or refuse. Makes it even worse that the display settings are usually 800 x 600. Yuck...

[viking33]

Aside from malware, my main reasoning for my dislike of toolbars is screen clutter with junk I don't need. I often use one of the computers at my favorite nursing home for tutoring someone. Those three computers have so many toolbars piled one on top of the other that there's very little territory left for the actual browser window. The poor old folks who use 'em don't know that they can deny or refuse. Makes it even worse that the display settings are usually 800 x 600. Yuck...

Can't you talk to the admin about yanking those toolbars?
Or just do it yourself?

[Bigaldoc]

Oh yeah, Bob, I DO do it myself so I can productively use the computers when I'm trying to teach someone how to do something. The next time I'm there, they're all back. I don't take the time or trouble to remove or block 'em. I just shut 'em down so I can recapture the screen real estate.

[viking33]

Oh yeah, Bob, I DO do it myself so I can productively use the computers when I'm trying to teach someone how to do something. The next time I'm there, they're all back. I don't take the time or trouble to remove or block 'em. I just shut 'em down so I can recapture the screen real estate.

Time for the mysterious midnight "deleter" to strike.
Hummm, wonder where or how they got lost?

[PJ_in_FL]

Here's a clip of stuff I've "installed" in the past week or two, in descending order from Revo. I think Google Chrome must be the culprit, but don't know how to verify that except to remove Chrome from my system which I really don't want to do.

Just curious how you came to the conclusion Chrome is the offending toolbar installer?

A Google search for pages with both Dealio and PDFill located multiple hijack reports where both were listed. The juxtaposition may be circumstantial, but I'd suspect if Chrome were installing an unwanted toolbar, the hue and cry would be deafening!

[Bigaldoc]

Just curious how you came to the conclusion Chrome is the offending toolbar installer?

I said "I think" so it wasn't really a conclusion, only that Chrome was the most recent element to have been installed.

...A Google search for pages with both Dealio and PDFill located multiple hijack reports

Thanks for that tip! I didn't bother to search for PDFill. It turns out it's not an app I'll get any use from so I'm gonna remove it.

Thanks again.