Is ScanGuard Safe? Suggested After Windows 10 Creators Update?

Microsoft Security Essentials (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

09-Aug-2017


Today I run Windows 10 Creators Update. One of the first articles that are listed in Microsoft Edge is the supposedly 'a must' ScanGuard installation - to protect your PC.

I am not sure if this is the first time I hear or read about ScanGuard antivirus, so I did a quick search.

Surprise, surprise!

About a year ago, many people threw all kinds of negative comments on this product, many veered away without even touching it, and many to tried it anyway, ended up uninstalling it. Reason? Creates thousands of false positive alarms!

It was not a good antivirus product and the company who made it, well, is new. Not yet established in the playing field.

What's the suggestion then? Use Microsoft Security Essentials, or Windows Defender. Or Malwarebytes. Even the free version of MBAM will do. Personally, I use Malwarebytes, and I'm sticking with it. And long years before, I did use Windows Defender and was contented with it.

So why would Windows endorse such a kind of product? I wouldn't know.

But for now, I will be waiting and on the lookout for fresh developments. One year and there should be much progress, who knows?

I guess those who have anything to say, well, all are welcome to leave their comments here, thank you!

Till then!

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How to remove Launchpage.org from Chrome, Firefox, IE and Edge

English: Browser usage share on Wikimedia Foundation projects on June 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

16 July 2017


Launchpage.org is another version of browser hijacker that seems to easily slip in without detection. And it took over my Maxthon browser's homepage. Fortunately, I have some other security settings turned on that checks for certificates. And this prevented my home pages from being replaced by launchpage.org.

Now I am not sure if there are installed programs that come with launchpage.org, but all I know is that the start icon is all that gets modified, specifying launchpage.org as the home page. So fixing that is all I will be discussing here.

Check that the Start page of your browser is not Launchpage.org. For Chrome, Firefox, Maxthon, that will be via Settings. For IE and Edge, that will be via Options.

Check also the shortcut of each and every browser. Right click on it, then on Properties, then change on Target. There should be nothing after the call to the program itself, for example, this is for Chrome:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"

I have seen "launchpage.org..." something, something after "...\chrome.exe", so I removed that.

Do the same for the shortcuts of Firefox, Maxthon, IE and Edge, and whatever other browsers you use. On many occasions, checking on the browser's start page and the shortcut properties will already solve the problem and you would have already eliminated launchpage.org.

If not, then you do a check on installed programs via Control Panel, or by typing 'uninstall a program" or "programs and features" in the Windows Pearl 'Search Windows' box. Anything that doesn't seem to belong to a legit company, or anything that has a fishy name, or the company name is blank, you exercise your own judgment, and clean up and remove any of these programs.

Resetting the browser setting will reset everything, so to me, that is the last recourse that I will suggest.

Well, I hope that in this short article, you will be able to remove Launchpage.org from your browser, and you get your browser back.

Till then!

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How To Remove Cleanserp.net Search Engine Hijacker From Chrome

Logo used from the start of the Chrome project until March 2011 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

July 8, 2017


Recently I was plagued by cleanserp.net search engine taking over Google. I do a search and out comes cleanserp.net taking over Google.com, and that is even when you type Google.com in the web address!

I let this happen for a couple of days, until I got fed up. I was thinking that it was a bit difficult to remove this search engine browser hijacker, but my curiosity got the better of me.

So I did a search, and guess what? It is easy enough, easier than I expected, even if it were to be done manually.

I'm not telling anything anymore about what cleanserp.net is, of how it got into your computer, and what it does, and more.

So here are the steps:

1. Check the browser shortcut by doing right-click on it, then Properties. If after the .exe it shows "http://cleanserp.net", remove that. Then click on OK.

2. Change your startup page, it must not be "http://cleanserp.net".

3. Uninstall any program that may be related to anything rogue or questionable. Since you know your computer better, you know what you are installing, and anything that doesn't look like a legit program, you uninstall these.

Specific to Google Chrome, if changing the search engine throws out “This setting is enforced by your administrator”, try the following (this is what fixed my problem):

1. Open %WINDIR%\System32\GroupPolicy folder (just copy that path and paste into the address bar of Windows Explorer). Delete the contents of that folder.

2. Next, open %WINDIR%\System32\GroupPolicyUsers and delete all of its contents.

3. Finally, restart your computer.

There is a possibility that a few more minutes will be added than before to your computer's restart process, but that is just the first time reboot after doing the change. it would return to normal afterwards.

Some more info can be got here: How to Remove Cleanserp.net [Chrome, Firefox, IE, Edge]

Hope this helps.

Thank you, and till then!

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Zemanta wasn't working in Firefox... uninstalled, reinstalled

Zemanta (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

25-Jan-2015


Yesterday, I was posting some of the articles, and I noticed that Zemanta is still not working. That it didn't work a week ago when I did some posting was still acceptable - I took it as a temporary glitch.

But yesterday, I had to try it on Internet Explorer, to eliminate Firefox. It wasn't also working in IE, so I came to identify that Zemanta add-on is the problem.

Since I am favoring Firefox over Internet Explorer for my blogging, I went to disable and enable Zemanta in Firefox. That meant restarting Firefox each change, of course.

Tried editing the article, and still, Zemanta isn't working.

Since removing and adding the add-on (or extension, to be precise) is easy, I did that next.

Removed. Added back in.

When Firefox was restarted after the reinstallation of the extension, there it was: Zemanta working like a charm!

I went back to the posts that didn't have the Zemanta touch, and yes, blogging with Zemanta is back!

C'est tout!

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Browser Shop in Chrome - Removed!

google chrome (Photo credit: toprankonlinemarketing)

05-July-2014


A couple of weeks ago, 'Browser Shop' just suddenly popped out of my Chrome webpages. As it hijacked the links, it was just a bit irksome. I wanted it removed. Immediately.

I searched, and there was none. not even the adware or malware software applications.

The extensions or add-ons removal procedure doesn't help at all. How can it help, since browser shop doesn't appear in the list?

Software removal program also is inutile, as there is no installed program called Browse Shop.

What's more, Browser Shop doesn't appear in Internet Explorer, not in Firefox, not in Safari, not in Maxthon, not in Opera.

Further validation I made is to check in Chrome in my Linux OS. It is not there, so I confirmed that this is a Chrome in Windows OS problem only.

When I ran out of options, I thought of one last recourse: uninstall-reinstall Chrome.

I did just that.

And...

Voila!

When I opened Chrome, Browser Shop is no longer there.

Of course, that entailed running CCleaner, two times, both on the Cleaner and Registry options, just to make sure that no remnants remain.

Even when I have Chrome linked to my account, I made a back-up of my favorites an homepages before I did the uninstall. Redundant, but I did double-redundancy.

So if you also run out of options, try uninstall-reinstall option.

It might just work.

Try it!

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