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Beware of Adware!


Spirit0f64

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Well people...watch your backs. I pre-ordered my copy of Skyrim in July and received it yesterday only to discover that I can't load the game without using Steam. Sooooooooo...I loaded the program and had to wait 4 hours while it downloaded the game I just purchased on DVD! What's up with that????? Anyway, the system locked up after a few minutes into the download and I had to reboot. Since I build my own systems, I know when something is awry and I decided to run my spyware program. Please understand that I had just checked the system prior to loading Steam because new definitions were available and there was no spyware on the system. After installing Steam and my system freezing, I ran the program again and here's what I found:

The name of the Adware is W3i.IQ5.fraud and is listed as AdwareC. It adds 2 registry entries that you will have to remove. These can be found at:

(SBI $467B1F92)Settings @ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Freeze.com

AND

(SBI $678078F9)Settings @ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\W3i

Because my computers are tuned personally by me, that means that adware will cause my system to lock up whenever present. Sadly, I was building a new system because I was eager to embrace all the graphic improvements that Skyrim had to offer. It is an AMD 6-core with 16GB DDR3 using 4 HDD on RAID 10 and dual Radeon HD6870 on Crossfire. Now, because of this, I am disappointed to have to report that the game that was 90% of the reason for doing this new build will be the only game that does not get installed. The game has bee trashed ($90 down the toilet) and Steam has been removed from my computer and will never again be permitted to install. My best to those of you who don't mind having adware on your computers, but as far as I'm concerned, any infection is a bad infection. Looks like I'll be heading back to Oblivion...and gladly too.

 

Spirit0f64

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First of all, you don't need to download from steam, you can install from the dvd just fine, a quick google would have told you that in 5 seconds.

Second of all, my steam did not come with any of the adware you mentioned, those registry entries don't exist for me.

edit: slightly related third: You don't ever have to use steam again after validating your copy.

Edited by saldu
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saldu: I did look that up, but for whatever reason, I still have to install Steam, which I don't understand and am still looking into. Glad to hear you don't have the adware, that's a BIG relief. I'm in the process of doing a complete system check (again). I'll report any findings if something proves different.
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