Shoutbox

Try reinstalling Plus! with the sponsor. Then do a complete uninstall. Restart the pc (files being used by the system can't be removed before a reboot).

You need to uncheck 2 checkboxes to prevent Plus! from installing any (additional) sponsor material. This is the current sponsor dialog (5.10.0.750):

Unchecking one box does not uncheck the other.

I think the reason why suddenly there is so much feedback on the sponsor material is because the sponsor dialog changed recently. This is the sponsor dialog from a slightly older version (5.01.0.706):

It looks largely the same, but there is a big difference in functionality. In older versions unchecking 'Install the Messenger Plus! toolbar' would also automatically uncheck the two (sub)options below it. In the new installer 'default search' and 'homepage' are no longer automatically unchecked when you uncheck the 'toolbar' option.


Also, AFAIK there is only an uninstaller for the toolbar in IE, which is labeled 'Messenger Plus! Community Smartbar'. Uninstalling the toolbar does not restore the homepage, search provider, searching from URL bar. Neither does it uninstall the toolbar from other browsers. Each of these modifications have to be restored manually by going trough the browser settings.

Personally I find this far from ideal (to put it nicely). Requests for a proper sponsor uninstaller have been made multiple times but was never created.

Well, I'm having the exact same issue and I am also 100% certain I unchecked all the related boxes.

In fact I went as far as to completely uninstall plus, yet it's still redirecting my google searches to plusnetwork.com, which is definitely not what I wanted.

What I am going to tress on is the fact that _nobody_ has yet given us a proper evidence or a log or whatever of where they exactly got the setups from. And I mean the proper direct link, which you can only see if you look at the HTTP headers when you download the setup. Thus not www.msgplus.net/DownloadMsgPlus.aspx, but the real link it redirects to, like (for the current version): mirror10.msgpluslive.net/20111016/MIX/Setup-MsgPlus-510.exe

This because it is only then that we can try and recreate the situation with the proper setup file with the proper sponsor flavor, and maybe investigate further.

However, this said, I make it a strong point that I download all the known available setups of all versions (including beta versions) and as a result I have probably one of the largest collections of Plus! setups of all the users here (yeah, call me nuts ).

I also always test-install each official version (and again, I'm not just talking about 'version' as in v5.1, v5.2, etc, but in the much bigger sense as in the different sponsored versions). And let me tress on the fact that I have never seen the sponsor (=browser companion, bar, search engine, etc) installing by itself. This includes the latest versions (=see link above, + the 'PN' and 'LK' flavors). And by 'seeing' I do mean by analyzing exactly what the setup is doing with the help of a sandbox, a network sniffer, a registry monitor and a process monitoring program.

So, again, if you experienced something with the setup which it should not be doing, then by all means, please provide us proper material so we can look into it deeper.

Nobody benefits from misbehaviouring setups, not even Yuna, despite what some might believe.

Just saying you did or did not do something is unfortunatly not enough. You can't imagine the amount of people saying that they did/didn't do something, while in fact they didn't/did (although not always on purpose though). This is all too common. People working in support centers and other similar areas sure know what I'm talking about.


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How the Plus! setup works in relation to the Linkury searchbar:
note: everything said here can easily be checked if you have some basic knowledge of the file system of Windows and archives

The setup of Plus! is now, what sometimes is called, an online setup. This means that the size of the setup is small, and that the needed files, which are actually going to be installed, are downloaded when you start the setup process... thus exactly like how WLM is installed.

When the setup is running and busy installing, the downloaded files are stored in two temporary subdirectories, named msgpl_XXXX.tmp (where the X stands for a hexadecimal number), under your Windows' temporary map.
these will be removed as soon as you close the Plus! setup. So, if you wanna check this out, don't close the setup.

Most of these files are compressed RAR archives, although they not always have the RAR extension in their name. In these archives there are more files and some are compressed archives on their own.

In one of these files (namely PlusPlusSetup.dat), which is also an archive, there is a file called MsgPlusSetup.exe.
This file contains binary resources. One of these resources is FILES_FILE_LINKURY. This file is again a RAR archive.

In there is the Linkury installer named LinkuryInstaller.exe. However, this installer is again an online installer, and if executed it downloads the actual Linkury MSI setup. It downloads it from (in this versions' case) http://mirror10.msgpluslive.net/20111016/LK/LinkuryPlus.msi. So, as long as LinkuryInstaller.exe is not executed, nothing gets downloaded, and thus nothing can be installed in the first place.

If you have unticked the searchbar box in the Plus! setup, then this Linkury installer will not be extracted and thus will not be installed. Which on its turn will not download the MSI, let alone start that.

So, to conclude: yes, a part of (note: 'part of') the entire searchbar setup system is included in the Plus! setup. But NOT (note: 'not') the bussiness part which actually installs the thing.

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Also note that this searchbar is actually a very popular addon (if you can call it that) for many freeware programs on the net. And believe me that many of such free programs actually do not let you choose to install it or not.

So, there is also always a chance that this searchbar was not installed by Messenger Plus!, but by some other software you've recently installed.

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quote:

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In fact I went as far as to completely uninstall plus, yet it's still redirecting my google searches to plusnetwork.com, which is definitely not what I wanted.

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Like said before: uninstalling Plus! will not reset the browser search engine to what it was before. In fact, this is very extremely rarely done with any other software which alters the search engine in the browsers. You need to manually set it back to what it was. Also know that it is not enough to simply enter the original one in the most obvious place in your browser. For many browsers there are quite a few deep buried settings which deal with search engines. You need to alter them too.

Either way, this is certainly not a case of Plus! being malicious and trying to hide itself so you can not get rid of it. You actually did got rid of it if you uninstall it (NOT by 3rd party apps, but by using the proper official uninstaller!!!); it is just that some settings in the browser have been 'leftover'.

Yes, completely removing your browser, like that other guy did, will solve it. So is formatting your computer or even buying a brand new one. But changing the settings back, manually (because the sponsor of Plus! does not know what it was before), would have solved it too though.

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To remove the Linkury searchbar:
http://www.linkury.com/faq/linkury/faq_eng.html

Go to control panel -> "Add/Remove Programs" (XP) or "Programs and Features" (Vista/7) -> Linkury Smartbar.
and follow instructions.

After that, you can change your browser settings such as your keyword search and default search provider by going to your browser's options menu.

For Chrome users, a helpfull page might be: http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?answer=95426
And otherwise: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/change-your-de...e-chrome-ie/24378/

Also remember that, especially for FireFox, there are different types of searches. Just changing one of them will not change the others. See the link above.

Also remember that these browser settings are just settings! They do not have anything to do with programs hijacking them or whatever. They are nothing more than some options in the browsers themselfs! So, even if you have uninstalled the Plus! Smartbar from Linkury you MUST change these browser settings yourself!!!

No, I'm sorry.

This reeks of malware.

I was asked to update msn messenger plus

I downloaded and installed it, unticking *all* boxes.

Despite this, I got the community smart bar. I immediately disabled/ removed it.

A day or so later, my browser crashed suddenly, and when I restarted it, the smartbar came back. Smart, heh.

I disabled and removed it again. Yesterday, my home page suddenly changed. I reset it. Today, my searches suddenly started being redirected via Plus Network rather than Google. no restarts, no browser restarts.  Both IE and Chrome were hit, but Opera appears safe.
I found this site (ironically via their search results) and went and removed the community bar from my program files. This hasn't reset all my home pages / search engines so I am doing so manually.

If I see any further hints of it after removing / resetting every trace of it I can find, I will report it as malware wherever I can find it, as it refuses to go away. I'm very, very saddened to find this happen, and it's deeply shaken my trust in MSN Messenger Plus!.

Edit;
I j ust found that "Browser Companion 1.1" was also installed on 14/12. Uninstalled, as I figure that's probably causing some of the problems.

This is APPAULING!

I too unticked all the check-boxes so it would not install these addon bits and my homepage has still changed in Firefox and installed this 'browser companion'

I have had MessengerPlus right from the begining but if it's going to start bundling with horrible ad-ware and alsorts of stuff then i WILL stop using it! Especially if it starts installing stuff without asking me. How can I trust it if it's going to be doing that???!!!

EDIT: Just found this Smart Bar thing too!? What is that! And when I uninstalled it, it crashed my chrome browser. Not cool, not cool!

Can anybody provide the link the downloaded the software from and any version numbers? If this is happening we will need to track it down, but need more information

Spunky, the download was initiated via Plus itself. Not manually downloaded from a website.

I believe Menthix has a good point with his post regarding the update to how the sponsor works and is presented to the user. Specifically this:

quote:

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In older versions unchecking 'Install the Messenger Plus! toolbar' would also automatically uncheck the two (sub)options below it. In the new installer 'default search' and 'homepage' are no longer automatically unchecked when you uncheck the 'toolbar' option.

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I'd like to offer a suggestion to prevent this sort of stuff. Include full sponsor uninstall instructions in the Plus installer. Simply an installation screen that says something along the lines of "Thank you for installing the toolbar. If you decided you don't want it, here's how you can remove it and put everything back the way it was".

I don't have a problem with sponsor software - it helps fund projects like Plus. What do have a problem with is when the software is so intrusive and a nightmare to remove. The only way I removed it was to uninstall Firefox because there is no easy way to reset an address bar search provider (i.e. Google).

Put simply, Plus needs to provide more transparency. The fact that this topic now has just under 1,000 views in just a few days shows that there's a lot of people experiencing similar issues. Plus could solve those issues by providing the uninstall information.

quote:

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Originally posted by Anagoogle
Spunky, the download was initiated via Plus itself. Not manually downloaded from a website.

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That's not enough. See my post.

Sorry, I don't know the HTTP header info. I just let Plus download the update and install.