I saw a bunch of Ask stuff on one of my user accounts. Now I know why.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20150417-column.html
(Woo hoo beat hazelnut to a story )
Use Adwcleaner and then watch what you accept when installing stuff in future
https://www.java.com/en/download/faq/disable_offers.xml
By the way they've been doing Ask for quite a while now.
I didn't accept a java update, either an "helpful" user did or secunia is doing something I no longer want them to...I don't even know why java is installed on my studio computer LOL
I use Java and I haven't seen (nor I want) Ask in ages.
Helps to have Ask.com blockers in the HOSTS file. Some of the adware (verging on malware in some of our minds) is very easily thwarted by blocking them via the HOSTS file - then they can't download anything.
And Java, uninstall it!
Also don't forget that Ask is one of the search providers installed by default with Chrome browser.
Secunia trashed my computer so badly that I had to restore it from a Partition Image backup.
I DID NOT AUTHORIZE SECUNIA TO MAKE ANY CHANGES.
I only allowed a preliminary scan to DISPLAY what was oui of date.
Unfortunately Secunia took it upon themselves to FIRST WITHOUT ANY WARNING to update / install JAVA to facilitate their scan.
I never allowed Secunia to have any contact with my computer after that fiasco.
Um, sorry alan I disagree. It is very easy to set PSI to inform of updates only, so I'm gonna call user error on you. I have my personal computer set that way. But I'm more hands off at my recording studio; so I consciously set it to auto updates (especially as it only updates for security based updates). PSI cleans all the installers and repackage them without bundle.
In this case it was a user who, it seems, I wrong-headedly imbued with admin install privileges, that installed a java based program, uninstalled the program but it left java and ask plus java set to autoupdate silently (a no no as I let PSI do it)
Also don't forget that Ask is one of the search providers installed by default with Chrome browser.
ei caramba im a lucky guy with ff
In my particular case, which was probably 6 years ago,
I subsequently discovered that in the Seconia small print the "latest" version of JAVA fixed a major Java defect,
and that Seconia DEPENDED upon JAVA to facilitate their scan for all the OTHER software that might have been installed on my system.
SECONIA REFUSED to scan my system with my existing version of JAVA,
and deliberately chose to MODIFY MY SYSTEM REGARDLESS of my selection of INFORM ONLY.
Seconia SHOULD HAVE WARNED ME and given me the opportunity to make a fresh partition image BEFORE they trashed my system.
Yeah psi has come a long way from that version and it has no dependencies