Webroot Spy Sweeper Installing Malware??

Exactly, it's merely an option to install it. Now you're not 100% on the mark when you say adware is installed without user consent. It's real easy to trick people into believing you can get all these "makes life easier" functions if you just install this "harmless addon that does NOT report back any personal information"....mhm hmm, heard that before. You can agree or disagree whether or not a toolbar or any other such addon is necessary and/or up to no good. But, in THIS particular case, I think things would be better if the AV vendors adjusted their flag as "riskware".

 

Some articles:

And going back to DarkButterfly:

And here is why I think BG scanner does a good job
specially for newbies:

More articles:

There are tons of articles about the practices of toolbars including of course Ask and Google toolbars
Newbies are the main victms so voor scanners like BG and NOD32 that somebody here called "darned" ...Toolbars are darned bad news

And PLEASE before placing a post re-read the last 2 pages of this thread

 

"Critical vulnerability found in Ask.com toolbar for IE
Buffer overflow flaw in the Ask.com toolbar for IE could allow an attacker to take control of a person's computer

By Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service
September 25, 2007 "


was this after the new owners took over, and even if it was, possibly an honest mistake? i am not sure what a buffer overflow is, but i think it's an unanticipated interaction by the user, and inadequate coding to compensate for it. please correct me if i am wrong, i would like to know.
another question that begs to be asked is, why didn't the new owners (ask.com) change the name? that certainly would have make a difference in public opinion. many people automatically put a bad label on ask.com, because they don't know about the new management. this move would have given a "cleaning house" appearance.

 

There's about zillion buffer overflow bugs in all sorts of applications out there, I really don't see how on earth it relates to this thread.

That's already the new name, was Ask Jeeves originally...