FullFlava

This was exactly my experience.

I got no such screen when I updated from within the uTorrent program itself. Maybe if I had downloaded and installed the update manually, but i thought uTorrent was one of the few programs I used that was safe enough to leave on auto-updating. Not anymore.

That still leaves behind the Conduit engine files and processes, they are under a separate uninstall entry. And, after running the Conduit uninstallation, the processes remained in my system until I cleaned them out with HijackThis. We could argue back and forth about this, but the point is that multiple users are coming here solely to complain about this browser bar and the fact that it was uninstalled without their knowledge. All I can recall is clicking "yes" to update, then "allow" when Windows UAC asked if I wanted to give permission to update. Maybe I just missed something, but I'm pretty damn sure I didn't, and I'm definitely not the only one. Whether it was silent or simply snuck into the update process in such a way that many of us didn't notice, it's disingenuous and shows a lack of respect for your users. The behavior of the browser bar and its addons, the complete hijacking of all browser functionality, and the difficulty people are having removing it simply add to the problems. It's not like "oops I forgot to uncheck the Yahoo toolbar when I installed Ccleaner" and you just remove the toolbar. There are layers of shit that get installed to all of your browsers (with the apparent exception of Chrome). And at least programs like Ccleaner present the toolbar option on its own dedicated install screen, making it very clear what you are agreeing to. I'm still pretty convinced it was a silent install for me, and even if there was some option to opt out, it was slipped in in such a way that savvy computer users who specifically watch out for browser toolbar addons missed it. That's a shitty move.

Update: It highjacked IE as well, changed the homepage and the search provider, and installed god knows what else. Thanks uTwat for posting the HijackThis tips. For those that aren't familiar with it, cnet has a clean download and a tutorial for it here. The very fact that we have to use HijackThis to remove this shit has officially moved uTorrent into the realm of malware. You guys should be better than this. Edit: oh, and it's real nice that the homepage it changes your browser to is mocked up to look as much like Google as possible. Hoping some of the less tech-savvy users won't notice? I hope Conduit gave you guys a fat fucking check, cuz you just alienated your entire user base. Edit 2: Looks like there's more than just those three items to remove in HijackThis. This is what I found in my scan: R3 - URLSearchHook: uTorrentBar Toolbar - {bf7380fa-e3b4-4db2-af3e-9d8783a45bfc} - C:\Program Files (x86)\uTorrentBar\tbuTor.dll O2 - BHO: Conduit Engine - {30F9B915-B755-4826-820B-08FBA6BD249D} - C:\Program Files (x86)\ConduitEngine\ConduitEngine.dll O2 - BHO: uTorrentBar Toolbar - {bf7380fa-e3b4-4db2-af3e-9d8783a45bfc} - C:\Program Files (x86)\uTorrentBar\tbuTor.dll O3 - Toolbar: uTorrentBar Toolbar - {bf7380fa-e3b4-4db2-af3e-9d8783a45bfc} - C:\Program Files (x86)\uTorrentBar\tbuTor.dll O3 - Toolbar: Conduit Engine - {30F9B915-B755-4826-820B-08FBA6BD249D} - C:\Program Files (x86)\ConduitEngine\ConduitEngine.dll And, after running a clean operation, twice, with all other windows closed, THREE of the five items still show up. What the fuck guys? This is some evil shit you let through onto our computers.

I've been using uTorrent for years, as it has clearly been the lightest, safest, and cleanest torrent program out there. I'm not normally one to complain about things, let alone go through the trouble of creating yet another account on the internet just to do so, but I registered today purely to come here and let you know how furious I am about this fucking browser bar. I open uTorrent a bit ago, and it tells me there's an update with improvements and whatnot, so I figure, "hey, why not" and click okay to proceed with the update. During the update process not one time was I asked or even told that a browser bar, which seems dangerously close to a browser highjacker, would be installed. When I reopened Firefox, my homepage had been changed, my search bar was changed, a new ugly toolbar had been added, and on top of that, when I removed the toolbar I discovered it had left another extension installed behind it. This is absolutely unacceptable, and you guys should know better. I'm honestly concerned as to what else was installed on my system without my knowledge, and how my other browsers may have been highjacked or compromised. Should I be worried that I unknowingly gave permission for some kind of trojan to be installed on my system as well? This is disgusting, and really not something I have time to deal with today. At the absolute least, we deserve a full disclosure of everything that was installed with the update, or could have been installed with the update. In addition, right fucking now you guys should be working on an emergency patch for this update, and the current update should be pulled until then. I'm sure I sound a bit sanctimonious here, but seriously, this is a major breach of privacy and trust, and you will lose a lot of users over this. I hope you guys can resolve it soon.