Adware Or Spyware On Windows Systems - Premieropinion

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Whilst checking out why one of my applications would fail 'application already running' when attempting to restart it within a session I noticed, within Task Manager, a process I could not remember seeing before. It was - Premieropinion.

I Googled 'premieropinion' and the results told me that I had a piece of 'Adware/Spyware' and this Adware has been around for a few years, difficult to get rid off in Mac systems but easy with Windows Vista etc.

So this code had been sitting on my machine for approximately two months. I could blame grandchildren but from what I have read it could have been initiated as a download buy anyone accidentally clicking on any area of a 'pop-up'. Probably my fault for suspending my McAfee real-time scanning for a few weeks whilst I was checking out performance issues.

 

You can easily check to see if the Adware is on your system via the Task Manager. For those who have never checked their Task Manager before:-

Two methods to start your Task Manager, and display the processes that are running on your system are:-

Simultaneously press the Ctrl-Alt & Delete keys and you will be given a menu of items you can select.. One will be 'StartTask Manager', select that one and a The Windows Task Manager will start and you will have a list of TABS you can select - Applications/Processes/Services/Performance etc. Select Processes tab and a list of names, in alphabetical order, of executable jobs (with 'exe' file extension) will be  displayed. Scroll down and if you find one for 'premierop.......' then select it and then select the 'End Process' button at the bottom right of the display.

That stops the process running in your current session. If not fully deleted the process will restart when you load your system.

 

To 1) read about and 2) prevent the Adware been reloaded the following is the info from Google search:-

1) http://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2010/jun/02/how-to-remove-opinionspy

PremierOpinion (or Premier Opinion) is adware which gets into computers by piggybacking corrupt screensavers downloaded onto a computer system. Premier Opinion is one of the first badware programs that affects both Macs and PCs. The removal of PremierOpinion has proven to be rather difficult but experts say using a reliable antispyware program should do the trick. Remove PremierOpinion immediately before it wreaks havoc on your system.

2) http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101008083340AAkEuER

PremierOpinion is an Adware application for Window's. Adware isn't harmful at all (unless it freezes your system that is) as it gets rid of things like cookies and, to keep it simple, a whole load of other unnecessary rubbish that'll do nothing but gradually slow your computer to "watchingpaintdry" mode. 
If you're having problems with this app. and would like to remove it,

click "Start Menu" and open up your "Control Panel".

Inside you'll find either "add/remove programs", or "Programs and Features" , depending on the operating system you use.

Simply open and you'll be shown a list of all the programs installed on your PC, all you need do is search for and delete the application in question. If you use Vista like myself, it'll be named "PremierOpinion" and have an unknown publisher. 

Rick click and you will be given the option to UNINSTALL - select that and the offending application will be removed.

 

 

[threegee]

 

Two methods to start your Task Manager, and display the processes that are running on your system are:-

 

Didn't you miss the second one?  And what's wrong with simply right clicking on (an unoccupied place on) the taskbar?  You should leave CTL+ALT+DEL as one of the last resorts, because with many operating systems it won't pop up any sort of dialogue and you will lose your entire session - something you don't want to get into the habit of doing!  Even with Windows an accidental second keying could spell disaster.

 

Malwarebytes is a useful addition to your regular AV program.  It often picks up stuff that's not necessarily a virus but has been sneaked on to your system.

 

My bet is that it will find something on your machine, and that won't be false positives aimed at selling you the paid-for version!

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Didn't you miss the second one?  And what's wrong with simply right clicking on (an unoccupied place on) the taskbar?  You should leave CTL+ALT+DEL as one of the last resorts, because with many operating systems it won't pop up any sort of dialogue and you will lose your entire session - something you don't want to get into the habit of doing!  Even with Windows an accidental second keying could spell disaster.

 

Malwarebytes is a useful addition to your regular AV program.  It often picks up stuff that's not necessarily a virus but has been sneaked on to your system.

 

My bet is that it will find something on your machine, and that won't be false positives aimed at selling you the paid-for version!

Well spotted sir. Yes, missed out the right click on the Task Bar. Must stop these grandkids interrupting me. My knowledge of Ctrl + Alt + Del has been expanded. Remember, vaguely, back in 1987-8 when we first found out you could restart ICL DRS configurations via that method and have always thought it only applied to DOS based systems - never used anything else. Never thought when I retired that years later I would have to dig out my old note book and update it!

Free version of Malewarebytes from  http://www.malwarebytes.org downloaded.

Thank you.

[Adam Hogg]

Probably my fault for suspending my McAfee real-time scanning for a few weeks whilst I was checking out performance issues.

Chances are McAfee would never have picked it up in the first place, Best Anti Virus/spyware software is Kaspersky Internet Security or AVG Anti Virus Both Pick up Spyware, Viruses, Trojans, Etc.

Ones the Avoid are mainly McAfee and Norton As they are Cheap Anti Virus Software which only pick up Major Viruses.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Adam, thanks for the info – did some testing with Malwarebytes. Will try Kaspersky PURE 3.0 when I can find their free trial download. Not going to give them £49.99 up front without a trial!

 

With my current system – Norton Security came with it as part of the package. Switched to AVG when Norton wanted more money.  AVG introductory offer was £10 and that lasted for 2 years. Switched from AVG to McAfee in November 2012 – just because of price – AVG price  quadrupled and McAfee introductory offer, for what appeared to be the same security options.

None of the security products I have used – Norton, AVG & McAfee have ever detected any possible malicious items on my PC.

 

Downloaded the trial version of Malwarebytes and did comparison runs against McAfee:-

Quick Scan –       Items Scanned – Items Detected -

McAfee                4,706                     0

Malwarebytes      267,727                 5

Skipped the request to remove the detected items and did:-

Full Scan (C & D)

McAfee              254,005                 0

Malwarebytes   486,451                  6

 

All items detected by Malwarebytes were  labelled as 'PUP.Optional's - Potentially Unwanted Program.

One exe file that was detected in the FULL scan was C:\Program Files\Optimizer Pro\OptProSmartScan.exe

 

Ran the Malwarebytes Quick Scan & Full Scan again and this time requesting the detected files to be removed on the completion of each scan. So this time the Full scan only detected the 1 item = the exe file.

Files Detected: 1

C:\Program Files\Optimizer Pro\OptProSmartScan.exe (PUP.Optional.OptimizerPro) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

 

Restarted my system after the deletions. The folder C:\Program Files\Optimizer Pro was still present, but empty. Deleted the folder.

 

Reran the FULL scan on C: & D:

Scan type: Full scan (C:\|D:\|)

Scan options enabled: Memory | Startup | Registry | File System | Heuristics/Extra | Heuristics/Shuriken | PUP | PUM

Scan options disabled: P2P

Objects scanned: 487482

Time elapsed: 2 hour(s), 7 minute(s), 20 second(s)

 

Memory Processes Detected: 0Adam – did some testing with Malwarebytes. Will try Kaspersky PURE 3.0 when I can find their free trial download. Not going to give them £49.99 up front without a trial!

 

With my current system – Norton Security came with it as part of the package. Switched to AVG when Norton wanted more money.  AVG introductory offer was £10 and that lasted for 2 years. Switched from AVG to McAfee in November 2012 – just because of price – AVG price  quadrupled and McAfee introductory offer, for what appeared to be the same security options.

None of the security products I have used – Norton, AVG & McAfee have ever detected any possible malicious items on my PC.

 

Time elapsed: 2 hour(s), 7 minute(s), 20 second(s)

 

Memory Processes Detected: 0

(No malicious items detected)

 

Memory Modules Detected: 0

(No malicious items detected)

 

Registry Keys Detected: 0

(No malicious items detected)

 

Registry Values Detected: 0

(No malicious items detected)

 

Registry Data Items Detected: 0

(No malicious items detected)

 

Folders Detected: 0

(No malicious items detected)

(end)

(No malicious items detected)

 

Memory Modules Detected: 0

(No malicious items detected)

 

Registry Keys Detected: 0

(No malicious items detected)

 

Registry Values Detected: 0

(No malicious items detected)

 

Registry Data Items Detected: 0

(No malicious items detected)

 

Folders Detected: 0

(No malicious items detected)

(end)

Edited December 28, 2013 by Eggy1948

[threegee]

So I win the bet then?

Why on earth would you pay for an AV when one of the very best is completely free?!

http://www.avast.com/en-gb/index

[Malcolm Robinson]

Thanks for the prompt.........I run Avast and have just ran a full system scan.  

 

Loads of unwanted detected.  

 

Machine now running more like itself!  

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

So I win the bet then?

Why on earth would you pay for an AV when one of the very best is completely free?!

http://www.avast.com/en-gb/index

Searched for 'bet' and it wasn't me. 

AV Summary:-

Malwarebytes detected more that Norton, AVG or McAfee

Adam says Kaspersky is best (or is that just Internet Security?)

threegee says Avast is best

Now my system has been scanned and cleared by Malwarebyte I will, when I have 4 hours spare, do another full scan with Malwarebytes (before by two week free trial runs out) and follow that immediately by downloading and running Avast free AV.

At the end of me running and attempting to compare products I will make a decision on what I will use.

But now I would bet that everyone will still have their own preference. For & Against is easy, just ask my wife! 

[threegee]

My bet is that it will find something on your machine, and that won't be false positives aimed at selling you the paid-for version! 

 

Someone else who doesn't read the "small print" at the bottom?

 

Didn't say Avast was best, said one of the very best.  I wouldn't presume to make that choice, except that when something is free then at least it's worth a try before parting with money.  Speaking personally I've installed Avast on dozens of machines, many for other peeps, and no one (except someone here) has had anything but praise for it. I've used it myself for several years across at least half a dozen machines.  By contrast I've found Norton an absolute pain to use, and the first thing I do with a new machine is try to get rid of any "free" bundled Symantec products - this is not always easy!

And, the free version of malwarebytes has always done a good job, so why part with money on that too?

 

Another free product you should look at is CCleaner to remove unnecessary clutter, and free up disk space.  Now someone here had a disagreement about that a while long back but what they said was totally contrary to my own long experience.  It has never screwed up a machine that I've used it on and I've been using it regularly on many machines for at least a decade.  It's only sensible to save the registry entries it removes just in case, but I can't remember ever having to restore the saved entries. If I had to pay for CCleaner I would, but once again the free version does all the job you need to do, and does it well.  The only irritation is the constant updates, with always the default option to upgrade to the paid-for version, but at least the product is being constantly improved and updated.

 

https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

[Adam Hogg]

Adam says Kaspersky is best (or is that just Internet Security?)

I use Internet Security which covers your internet and computer so i would recommend it instead of Anti Virus as that only covers your PC not internet.

[Symptoms]

I'd second GGG's views about CCleaner, like him I've used it for years on various machines; before that I used Evidence Eliminator.  But take care when using it.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

So I win the bet then? 

Someone else who doesn't read the "small print" at the bottom?

 

 

Threegee - when there are a lot of entries to go through I often use the 'search' facility on the topic. In this case I searched for the word 'bet' and nothing found. Tried it again today and the word 'bet' still not found. Tried longer words and they were all found. Tried 'bet' again and still not found. Tried numerous 3 letter words - 'and' - 'the' - 'bus' - 'car' etc. and nothing returned. This system does not like searching for 3 letter words. Tried a two letter word and the system informs you that words below 3 characters, and certain other words, are not allowed.

'bet' must not be allowed. 

Bet I still get it wrong in the future. 

[threegee]

 

If the site search did three letter words the database would be massive and the search results wouldn't be a great deal of use.  This is deffo a case for using the page search in your browser (CTL+F).  'Orses for courses I think! 

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

I have now ran the Free download scans from Malwarebytes – Avast & Kaspersky and compared them against my current  McAfee version. Each product was left with their default settings. My McAfee is set to search for 'Unnecessary system files' of the type :- Temporary Files, Recycle Bin, Registry, Shortcuts, Windows History, Lost File Fragments, Active X Controls, Flash and Searchlight cookies, Memory Image files, Problem report files & Thumbnail cache. The default at download was not changed for the three downloaded products.

 

                              No. of Files Scanned                        

                           Quick San   -  Full Scan – Time Taken –       Virus found – Adware/Spyware found

McAfee                 4,706                                     not given              None                           None 

                                        254,005         not given               None                             None

Malwarebytes          267,727                             11 mins                 None                           5 (5 files)

                                                    486,451        1hr 58mins            None                            6 (5 files + 1 'exe' in ProgramFiles)

Avast                    not given                               38mins                 None                           None

                                                     not given   1hr 22mins              None                           None

Kaspersky             not initiated

                                                     478,874      1hr 10mins            None                           None

 

Naturally this small test with only my own spec, and limited knowledge, was very basic. So please no "you should have done…………………….. etc. etc.†It's just me playing (filling in my retirement spare time) and you can ignore or read into it whatever you want.

The one 'exe' file that was found = OptimizerPro and  was only detected in the Full scan so I assume 'Program Files' is not scanned on the quick scan. The full filename was C:\Program Files\Optimizer Pro\OptProsmartSmartScan.exe

The other 5 files were under my user  in Documents\OptimizerPro.

I Googled 'OptimizerPro' and from the entries returned this is a known piece of Adware/Spyware and earliest report of I saw from Google was 6^th December 2011.

As this Spy ware has been known about for at least a couple of years I would have expected all the major products to be aware of this and have it in their relevant database.   

 

Reran Malwarebytes Full scan and at the end took the option to remove the detected files.  

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

I'd second GGG's views about CCleaner, like him I've used it for years on various machines; before that I used Evidence Eliminator.  But take care when using it.

 

Ccleaner: The Real Review

 

Started by Mr Darn, Mar 10 2009 05:59 PM

Symptoms - read the previous topic on CCleaner by Mr Darn. Downloaded the free software and from the Options given when the package is loaded I would assume there have been quite a few changes in the operating of this package since Mr Darn, and many disgruntled users lost there Documents. 

Leaving the default settings unchanged

I initiated the 'Analyze' run and found the list of files reported that would be deleted if the 'Run Cleaner' was initiated, with the default settings, would be acceptable to me.

 

    Details of files to be deleted (Note: No files have been deleted yet)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Internet Explorer - Temporary Internet Files       117,559 KB          381 files               

Internet Explorer - History           2,162 KB               23 files 

Internet Explorer - Cookies         3 KB       11 files 

Internet Explorer - Index.dat files            1,072 KB               5 files   

Windows Explorer - Recent Documents 4 KB       6 files   

Windows Explorer - Thumbnail Cache     4,112 KB               6 files   

System - Empty Recycle Bin         28,520 KB             20 files 

System - Temporary Files             302,027 KB          325 files               

System - Memory Dumps            26,303 KB             12 files 

System - Windows Log Files        128,572 KB          51 files 

Google Chrome - Internet Cache              417,032 KB          2,696 files           

Google Chrome - Internet History            1,447 KB               12 files 

Google Chrome - Cookies            198 KB   469 files               

Google Chrome - Session             32 KB     3 files   

Applications - Adobe Acrobat 10.0            453 KB   1 files   

Applications - Adobe Acrobat 9.0              222 KB   4 files   

Applications - Adobe Acrobat XI                229 KB   3 files   

Applications - Adobe Reader 11.0             221 KB   2 files   

Applications - McAfee AntiVirus                15,842 KB             252 files               

Applications - MS Office Picture Manager             4 KB       2 files   

Applications - Office 2007             65 KB     17 files 

Applications - Office 2010             65 KB     17 files 

Internet - Google Toolbar IE        14 KB     7 files   

Internet - Skype               169 KB   61 files 

Multimedia - Adobe Flash Player              1 KB       34 files 

Multimedia - Macromedia Shockwave 11              19 KB     1 files   

Multimedia - Microsoft Silverlight             1 KB       12 files 

Multimedia - Windows Media Center     28 KB     22 files 

Multimedia - Windows Media Player      1 KB       1 files   

Utilities - Adobe Air         7 KB       1 files   

Utilities - Windows Defender     2,436 KB               1 files   

Windows - MS Search    8,448 KB               66 files 

Windows - Remote Desktop       20,467 KB             1 files .

 

Initiated the 'Run Cleaner' and 5,419 files deleted = 1,052 MB removed

So my system was not that bad, but the tidy still worthwhile.

 

 

  

 

[threegee]

That's only part of the functionality of CCleaner.  At least as important is the registry fix and clean, but that's the bit you need to be careful to save what it has removed.  That probably sounds a bit more alarmist than I intended, as the default options are generally pretty safe.

 

Another way of freeing space on Windoze is deleting unnecessary restore points - ones that you will likely never use.  CCleaner can do this but there are other ways too.  It's particularly safe to do this if you have a couple of external backups in the can anyway, and you know the machine is running stably.  After some major upgrades the space you recover from this can make you very happy.  Wise not to overdo this by not removing the most recent restore point though.  I think that current versions of CCleaner save you from yourself here anyway by preventing you deleting the most recent one.  See: Tools-->System Restore