Mystery Download - Registry Mechanic Not New Version

Last Friday I decided that perhaps I should try CCleaner to see if it would detect a reason why my machine sometimes refuses to shut down properly. It reboots instead. When it does it sets off about a half-hour session while the RAID-1 software restores my C drive.

I was half asleep. I was told that my copy of CCleaner, Ver 2.06.567 was out of date and that there was a new version to download. I grudgingly started the update. The next thing I knew I was trapped in a download of Registry Mechanic from PCTools. The download automatically installed and ran the software. I needed to "register to repair all detected errors." I aborted the process at this point.

Has PCTools somehow managed to interject itself into the upgrade process for Piriform software?

Having read recent entries on this forum, I'm uncomfortable with running even my old version of CCleaner, let alone upgrading and running.

Comments?

baumgrenze

I would think you hit on the answer when you said you were half asleep.

What told you your ccleaner software was out of date? (by the way there have been quite a few versions since that one)

Best to only download from here

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

0r for slim version, here

http://www.ccleaner.com/download/builds

Registry Mechanic and PC Tools have nothing to do with ccleaner.

Hazelnut,

I should have been more explicit.

I went to my desktop. I clicked on the icon marked CCleaner. It opens "C:\Program Files\CCleaner\CCleaner.exe"

The program opened and a pop-up announced a new version. I reluctantly clicked on the link in the pop-up (I really wanted to go to bed.) The next thing I knew I was downloading Registry Mechanic.

I only wanted to alert others that someone may have found a way to subvert a proper upgrade process.

I made the point that I was tired. Sometimes I do screen dumps to Word of all the screens that occur in such a process. I did a few, but after the fact.

Perhaps the problem was with what I encountered at filehippo.com?

This is a sketchy record of the process. I went back into my Mozilla SeaMonkey browser history and copied the entries for the time period in question. Here they are:

http://www.ccleaner.com/update/?v=2.06.567&l=1033 10:26:51 PM

http://www.ccleaner.com/download 10:26:59 PM

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/ 10:2:20 PM

http://www.pctools.com/registry-mechanic/download/ 10:2:48 PM

http://www.trap17.com/forums/Ccleaner-Regi...nic-t25976.html 10:34:43PM

http://www.trap17.com/forums/Hate-Registry...nic-t32966.html 10:35:26

I've not gone back to check this out. I do not have time now. Is it possible that filehippo has an ad for pctools that I hit by mistake? The above record shows a pretty clear path from ccleaner.com to filehippo.com to pctools.com and then to some forums to try to understand what had happened.

I hope this adds grist to the mill.

baumgrenze

Hazelnut,

I should have been more explicit.

I went to my desktop. I clicked on the icon marked CCleaner. It opens "C:\Program Files\CCleaner\CCleaner.exe"

The program opened and a pop-up announced a new version. I reluctantly clicked on the link in the pop-up (I really wanted to go to bed.) The next thing I knew I was downloading Registry Mechanic.

I only wanted to alert others that someone may have found a way to subvert a proper upgrade process.

I made the point that I was tired. Sometimes I do screen dumps to Word of all the screens that occur in such a process. I did a few, but after the fact.

Perhaps the problem was with what I encountered at filehippo.com?

This is a sketchy record of the process. I went back into my Mozilla SeaMonkey browser history and copied the entries for the time period in question. Here they are:

http://www.ccleaner.com/update/?v=2.06.567&l=1033 10:26:51 PM

http://www.ccleaner.com/download 10:26:59 PM

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/ 10:2:20 PM

http://www.pctools.com/registry-mechanic/download/ 10:2:48 PM

http://www.trap17.com/forums/Ccleaner-Regi...nic-t25976.html 10:34:43PM

http://www.trap17.com/forums/Hate-Registry...nic-t32966.html 10:35:26

I've not gone back to check this out. I do not have time now. Is it possible that filehippo has an ad for pctools that I hit by mistake? The above record shows a pretty clear path from ccleaner.com to filehippo.com to pctools.com and then to some forums to try to understand what had happened.

I hope this adds grist to the mill.

baumgrenze

I had a similar experience when I went to download CCleaner. It appears that there is some sneaky stuff on the page and you end up on a page that speaks to an entirely different product ("RegCure") and vendor (PC-Tools):

http://pccleaner-download.com/?gclid=CNbqz...CFQZfswodv178qg

This happened in Firefox and I believe it was because I missed Firefoxe's "Allow this redirect" prompt and, instead, clicked on a great big, prominent "Download Now" button that took me to the competing product. Pretty sleazy piece of work, that.

post-27329-1237155020_thumb.png

post-27329-1237155020_thumb.png

Rob, this is way off topic, but I'm curious what you used to annotate your thumbnail?

annotate your thumbnail?

The image was uploaded to the forums as an attachment which automatically makes a thumbnail for large size images. Note that uploading images onto the forums also uses up your available MB that the forum will host for you, hence the reason to rely upon free image hosting sites.

The image was uploaded to the forums as an attachment which automatically makes a thumbnail for large size images. Note that uploading images onto the forums also uses up your available MB that the forum will host for you, hence the reason to rely upon free image hosting sites.

Thanks, Andavari. What I really was interested in is what software was being used to put the arrows and comments on the thumbnail.

Thanks, Andavari. What I really was interested in is what software was being used to put the arrows and comments on the thumbnail.

I'm not sure what Andavari uses but I use Paint.NET to do things like that:

http://www.getpaint.net

I import the image into Paint.NET then manipulate it with its tools like Circle, Rectangle and Text input.

It takes a while to get used to but it is fun.

I had a similar experience when I went to download CCleaner. It appears that there is some sneaky stuff on the page and you end up on a page that speaks to an entirely different product ("RegCure") and vendor (PC-Tools):

http://pccleaner-download.com/?gclid=CNbqz...CFQZfswodv178qg

This happened in Firefox and I believe it was because I missed Firefoxe's "Allow this redirect" prompt and, instead, clicked on a great big, prominent "Download Now" button that took me to the competing product. Pretty sleazy piece of work, that.

The image that you show is on the Filehippo download page, and the highlighted area seems to be part of the Google Ads section. Filehippo is an independant download provider, and CCleaner or Piriform has no influence on their content or layout.

I'm not sure what Andavari uses but I use Paint.NET to do things like that:

http://www.getpaint.net

I use the same. It has an arrow tool built into it when wanting to draw a straight line with an arrow, with many other free paint tools the arrows have to be made manually.