I recently replaced Panda Free 2016 with Avast! Free after Panda 'quarantined' part of the FotoSketcher 3.20 installer rendering it inoperable and causing the computer to have to be rebooted. Even though I instructed Panda to allow it to run it quarantined something that never went into quarantine and later informed me that there was no threat anyway. This errant behaviour, with similar problems reported by others, precipitated my replacing Panda with Avast!. It has since been brought to my attention that Panda may have acted like it did because of this report from herdProtect. Notice only one in sixty eight scanners detected this particular threat which tends to suggest it is a false positive: fotosketcher.exe POPELER SYSTEM, S.L. The setup program uses the Firseria/Solimba AppInstaller (DownloadMR) which is a monetization download manager that bundles additional adware offers, typically by wrapping legitimate applications. The application fotosketcher.exe by POPELER SYSTEM, S.L has been detected as adware by 1 anti-malware scanner with very strong indications that the file is a potential threat. The program is a setup application that uses the Solimba DownloadMR installer. It uses the Solimba download manager to push adware offers during the download and setup process. Bundled adware includes search and shopping web browser toolbars. The FotoSketcher site claims of course: ‘FotoSketcher is completely free (even for commercial use, if you wish to sell your pictures) and does not contain any adware, spyware or virus. It runs on Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7 and the latest Windows 8 and 8.1 (sorry, no Mac version available).’ VirusTotal, WOT and McAfee Site Advisor give the FotoSketcher site a clean rating, although one comment did claim on WOT that the site had malware. All the other comments were fine. Furthermore, I have uploaded the FotoSketcher 3.20 installer to VirusTotal which scanned it and every scanner gave it a clean rating. Plus, I have scanned my PC with Avast!, MBAM and SUPERAntiSpyware and even searched the computer for any evidence of PUP's or malware and everything is clean. I have used FotoSketcher for a few years and never found it to deliver any malware to a computer I was using it on. I have also used the PortableApps version with no ill effects. Anyone have any thoughts?
