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New BitTorrent Browser Bar


CMeek

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As you may already know, BitTorrent offers users an optional browser toolbar with the download of our clients.

Recently, in an effort to provide a better browser bar and improved search, we've switched partners. The new browser bar is now customizable with thousands of free browser apps and will soon offer integration between the BitTorrent browser app and the client.

This browser bar helps support BitTorrent. To kick-off the partnership, we will be offering the bar as an optional download as part of the uTorrent 2.2 update. The bar will continue to be optional, will only download if the offer is accepted and can be uninstalled at anytime.

Thank you for your support. We'd welcome any feedback or comments at product@utorrent.com.

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This browser bar is one of the primary reasons that I'm now done using uTorrent. It was great while it lasted, but it has begun to tread onto the slippery slope that is unnecessary UI elements and bloat that has plagued so many applications in the past. I don't know why you guys went and ruined a simple, lightweight program that so many of us loved.

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I agree with Cynic, in the instalation it already was some of a not so nice surprise to have to take care of a "toolbar invitation", by the time we all have get used to be careful with this crap-bar things, but come on!, this is uTorrent!, this is SAFE... or used to be at least...

By the way, thanks for everything guys, it was really cool since 2003 when i first noticed it.

Regards!

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For me that toolbar installed or does something even though I unchecked "Install bla bla.."

My WinPatrol constantly alerts me that tbuTor.dll has been installed on system and after some time it made my w7 ultimate system so totally unresposive that I have to boot system with power switch!

And even better when I uninstalled uTorrent, that rbuTor.dll is still bugging my system. There is no uninstall entry for it, so to me this looks like malware. Do I really need to reinstall my operating system to get rid of this? If so, I will submit that dll as malware sample to my antivirus manufacturer, so others won't get burned because of this.

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I registered for the sole purpose of posting this: uTorrent, you know better than to sneak in a pesky toolbar in the install, and having it selected by default. I was expecting the usual flawless little program I always have, but now I had to spend several minutes uninstalling and resetting my homepage. And WTF: the search URL you added as a homepage even had a unique tracking ID, whats up with that...

Shame! You were the best, but you fell for the trap of adding crap. Now I need to find an alternative.

Look to RealPlayer and all they did to make their users suffer--you are on your way down that path now. Turn back before it is too late.

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How is it that when you uncheck the tick box to install the toolbar it still goes and installs it. And worse, when you try and uninstall that garbage it only removes it from the add/remove programs list but keeps it hooked into the browser ???

For those who want to remove this crap completely off your system, use Trend Micros little gem "HijackThis".

It. Specifically target and remove the following:

"R3 - URLSearchHook: uTorrentBar Toolbar - {bf7380fa-e3b4-4db2-af3e-9d8783a45bfc} - C:\Program Files (x86)\uTorrentBar\tbuTor.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"

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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.

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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.dllO2 - BHO: Conduit Engine - {30F9B915-B755-4826-820B-08FBA6BD249D}        - C:\Program Files (x86)\ConduitEngine\ConduitEngine.dllO2 - BHO: uTorrentBar Toolbar - {bf7380fa-e3b4-4db2-af3e-9d8783a45bfc}        - C:\Program Files (x86)\uTorrentBar\tbuTor.dllO3 - Toolbar: uTorrentBar Toolbar - {bf7380fa-e3b4-4db2-af3e-9d8783a45bfc}        - C:\Program Files (x86)\uTorrentBar\tbuTor.dllO3 - 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.

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i have registered here for the sole purpose of complaining about the totally unnecessary addition of the most unwelcome toolbar er , option. Please don't do this kind of crap to your loyal users. If we want a toolbar then we will ask for one. Shame on you , grade a fuck up.

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All you have to do is go to Add/Remove Programs and uninstall the uTorrent Browser Bar. And then it's gone.

It's not silent. There's 3 checkboxes related to the toolbar that were presented to you on upgrade.

I did , it didn't , what checkboxes , 3 you say? nope.

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All you have to do is go to Add/Remove Programs and uninstall the uTorrent Browser Bar. And then it's gone.

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.

It's not silent. There's 3 checkboxes related to the toolbar that were presented to you on upgrade.

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.

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http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/123/toolbarshit.jpg

Uncheck those 3, or hit "No, thanks" and it'll skip the toolbar installation. That entire dialog is just related to the TBs.

Honestly, I'd prefer if this hadn't been done in the first place, but it's a necessary evil.

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.

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Had i seen that screen or been given that option i wouldn't be complaining. I wanted to download a torrent , i was asked if i would like the new bitorrent , ok i said , it downloaded and installed itself without giving me any options what.....so...............evah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have now lost my trust and i suspect a helluva lot of other users too. Please think before you pull this kind of shit in future.

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I created this account just to reply to this thread and express my disgust with this new version.

I jumped on the uTorrent bandwagon from the beginning five years ago, I have recommended it to anyone who I thought could benefit, and most importantly I have TRUSTED the program.

On linux systems, I even avoided Transmission and Deluge - because I TRUSTED uTorrent and was willing to run it via WINE to have it.

This new version with toolbars, homepage hijacking, etc, has more than violated my TRUST, it makes me sad. Sad that this long relationship has come to such an unexpected end. But it must, because I cannot TRUST uTorrent any longer.

Now I need to contact my friends and warn them that the wonderful program I told them about has taken a horrible turn.

Congratulations on destroying years of TRUST in an instant!

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Much like everyone else here, I am extremely annoyed by this spyware bundled into uTorrent. You have lost my trust.

I DID get the dialog with the checkboxes. That dialog is very DISHONEST. Just look at the screenshot Firon posted. The dialog says "uTorrent setup", but in fact it should say "various crapware setup". My problem is I get 2 options - "Install" and "no thanks". But if I click Install there, does that mean installing uTorrent, like the dialog claims, or does it mean installing the crapware? No way to know.

As a poweruser, I realized what's going on and came here to read the story. Most users will just click install because they were led to believe this is the uTorrent setup and clicking "no thanks" will cancel the installation. I don't see any signs of being infected by this crapware, I hope it didn't install stuff silently. Most users will get infected because you misrepresented information to get their consent.

BTW the new icons in uTorrent look terrible.

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Very unfortunate that uTorrent has taken this route. Come on guys, I thought you were better than this. As bugmenot2 mentioned, that dialog for browser bar is extremely dishonest. Casual users will miss is easily. Good that i came to the forum as soon as I saw the toolbar dialog. And I do like the new icons.

Get better guys.

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toolbarshit.jpg

Uncheck those 3, or hit "No, thanks" and it'll skip the toolbar installation. That entire dialog is just related to the TBs.

You are correct in that people should read the screen and realise what they are ticking, however we are all guilty of skimming T+C, particularly when they appear to be similar to most other T+Cs.

Also, the 3rd item of the checklist is (wilfully?) misleading in that when installing / upgrading any software you are expected to accept the T+C before installing.. as such it appears (to most people) that you must accept the T+C to install UTorrent (rather than the toolbar).. This is why there has been so much negative reaction.

Further, uninstalling it is no simple matter either, since it installs two items which must be removed from your Programs & Features, and even then you have to uninstall the add-on from Firefox manually.

I shall be paying very close attention to any further update Utorrent releases

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