"SaveNow" spyware in BearShare Pro
 

Just to try the BearShare Pro, BearShare Pro was immediately DOWNLOADed. I just wanted to see a web page explaining what is in the Pro version, or its argumentation or promotion.

Well I thought that the downloaded file would just contain such documents, with an offer to subscribe, and nothing else.

I was surprised to see BearShare completely installed and CONNECTING IMMEDIATELY to Gnutella and start sharing my files (that I had shared in my private LimeWire settings) and taking bandwidth even before I had completed the registration form and its payment.

And no way to see what was happening during this time, or which files were being uploaded or searched on my PC.

But I was even more surprized when I saw that BearShare PRO 4.3 comes bundled with a stealth copy of the "SaveNow" spyware/adware (that has SO MANY variants), that I had to clean up from my system even after uninstalling BearShare PRO! During that time, it had corrupted my LimeWire settings, and broken my transfers in progresses within LimeWire. And all my library had to be rehashed...

Just to confirm that BearShare Pro was the origin of this "SaveNow" spyware presence I rechecked my PC after cleaning up all, and relaunched the BearShare PRO installer. Once the installer completed, SaveNow was reinstalled, and uninstalling BearShare Pro did not remove it...

I had to clean up my system myself. Shamely the BearShare PRO uninstaller broke the support for Magnets in Limewire and did not restore it but simply deleted this setting.

I'll wait for a couple of days with new spamwares definition files and I'll recheck my system (because I know that SaveNow can (and does) perform autoupgrade of its code, and new versions of this very recurrent and intrusive spyware are constantly created to try defeating anti-spywares like Ad-Aware or SpySweeper.

What is BearShare trying to do with such bad installer that does not let users confirm its actions?

(Sorry Vinnie, if these words shock you. But this surprized me because all this was in the PRO download. I would have complained much less if it had been in the Free/Basic version which is said to be ad-supported, and until now has always been such.)