The Crawler/Spyware terminator issue

[jlockley]

After ongoing frustration, I thought I would throw a little light on the Crawler issue. I have seen a lot of good tries with wrong information.
1) The Problem. One day you wake up and find that a) you have a crawler toolbar you didn't install and don't want and b) you find that when before you could type just about any nonsense into Firefox's address bar and get a relatively sensible page, now you get a crawler search page, even if you don' have crawler as your preferred search engine. (correction. You think you don't have crawler as your preferred search engine. You do now.)
2)Crawler is not spyware or malware (actually I'd be up for an argument on that, but for all intents and purposes, it's legit.) It comes along for the ride when you download Spyware Terminator. I got adopted by a stray half coyote once, and we got a lot of fleas in more or less the same process. It installs itself as a tool bar and it itself as your default search engine.
3) What to do if you find it a pain. (and you surely do.)
- Uninstall both Crawler and Spyware Terminator via the Control Panel process of your Windows version.
- Download but and install a different malware program. I am enjoying malwarebytes right now.
- After exporting your registry just for safety, remove all references to both crawler and spyware terminator, including the update features. You may find this speeds up your computer a bit.
-Go to c:\program files\mozilla firefox\searchplugins and remove all crawler entries. If that is not your file structure, do a search in program files for crawler and delete everything you find.
- Close Firefox by choosing exit from the main menu. Reopen it in safe mode by right clicking the icon and choosing that option or entering firefox -safe-mode .Bypass the warning by promising to be careful. Click on Restore default search engine (or something to that effect, close and restart (button).
- There are other ways to change default search engines, but they do not seem to work with crawler.
Note: There is an alternative route to resetting the search engine from normal mode, but it doesn't seem to work as well.
Ding dong, the witch is dead. Try typing something like "Fluffy Bunny Slippers" or "Jolly Green Giant" directly into the address bar and you will either be sent to a web site or google search.

 

[sggaunt]

Er Ok but....
I have been using Spyware terminator on several machines for about 10 years now (15 or more in different places) , and it has Never, ever not even once, auto installed the Crawler tool-bar.

It does have the option to install the bar in the SWT installer and you must make sure that you uncheck the box.
But again you cannot blame SWT for this practise as it is very common amongst all software vendors.

I don't have any association with the company but I have been a member of their forum for many years and always found the moderators to be straight up and helpful.


This is just so we get a balanced argument.







Steve: N.M.N.F.
If something is popular, it must be wrong: Mark Twain

 

[jlockley]

It came on an upgrade of free Spyware Terminator on my home machine. I was careful not to install it, but somehow it installed anyway. Once installed, it was devilish to remove, so I thought I'd put the process in a good place.
If you Google the issue, you will see quite a few requests spread around various forums for removal help, so it's not a unique issue. Spyware Terminator has always worked extremely well for me, and if the addition of Crawler can be avoided or doesn't matter, then there's no problem with it. It simply does not jive with some of my lazier habits.
As for there being a connection, the new name of the product "Crawler Spyware Terminator" is a pretty reliable clue.
By the way, the toolbar was not the most serious issue. It is the insinuation of the search engine that caused problems.
A final step in removing all crawler traces, by the way, is to clear the history, as any search once hijacked by Crawler will continue to show as a crawler search.
I would not say that the distributors are in any way lacking integrity or had evil in sin - although they certainly have some benefit from the Crawler association - I've been puzzling and can think of a few, but who knows? It's most likely a fair way to monetize a valuable free tool. It is only unfortunate that it's removal is so difficult to discover.

 

[jlockley]

Opps. German snuck in. That would be evil in MIND. sorry.

 

[sggaunt]

Ok heres a bit more info for you.
Spyware Terminator was developed by Crawler, its not a recent change.
Some early versions did have an uninstall problem, Full clean up instructions can be found on the forum.

If you are tring to use the 'Win Security Guard' feature then you have to install the Crawler tool bar as its part of the toolbar code rather than SWT itself.

Ask the people who develop and test SWT here..

http://forum.spywareterminator.com/

There is a German version of the forum if you want one.




Steve: N.M.N.F.
If something is popular, it must be wrong: Mark Twain

 

[jlockley]

Well, none the less it is a problem for quite a few people. I must have installed the Win Security Guard and not grasped the connection.
It took me about a week to find the total solution. I looked at the Spyware Terminator website and didn't find enough information, although it's probably there.
In fact, the search bar itself went with relative easy uninstall, but the larger issue was the co opting of incomplete address bar entries, which was an ongoing challenge.
I think you will find looking at the Spyware Terminator forums that this is an ongoing issue and frustrating to quite a few people. My intent was/is to make it less so for some.