18 replies to this topic

[Claw]

Today and tonight I have just cleaned 2 computers of all the junk that accumulates over the course of time.Useing an arsenal of freeware from FreewareBB,,I've cleaned ,reset and tweaked life back into these macines. Both computers are from people involved with church choirs. While running a scan with Avast Free on one and MSE on the other ,,they both came up with the same threats. Going to the threat location, I discovered "both" treats were  "OPENCANDY". After removing and cleaning away the "infections",,I proceeded to look up the source of the problems. A software from and called" Musicnotes" . Checking further I found that you can download Musicnotes Player Free,,only,,it only plays songs downloaded from Musicnotes. The way Musicnotes works is,,You get a one time"FREE DOWNLOAD" of Musicnotes. Then you get to download all sheet music anytime ,,anywhere "FREE",,,,,,,,,,after you set up an account an pay a fee to download "FREE" !!!! When I first looked it up ,the first thing I saw was Musicnotes (FREE).
Nothing is free but the Player which isn't any good without a Musicnote subscription !!!!
FREE,,,FREE DOWNLOAD,,,FREE SHEET MUSIC,all this is used to con you into a paid subscription and registation.The only thing that was "FREE" was the "Original Threat",,,,,,OpenCandy.

[marko]

Claw, I've had a look through the site and can't see this software, did this come from us?

[Claw]

Ok Marko,,now I was "misled". I was told the software came from here but I don't see it either. When I checked it out I went straight to the homepage,,www.musicnotes.com.. Sorry for the confusion. This software is being used right now at this moment by over 100 people involved in 3 different church choirs and music study classes. Again ,,I'm sorry to put you through all that trouble. One good thing though,,the face of another scum software is now revealed.

[marko]

Just did another search by the website and I'm still not seeing it so I guess it's safe to say we're not listing it, but as you say it hopefully warns others anyway - I'll take a look at it though and add it to the bad freeware section shortly

[marko]

Hmm, OK, re-read your first post Claw and I'm a tad confused.   Firstly, you mention the infections that were OpenCandy - OC isn't actually an infection or virus or anything like it - it's basically a means to suggesting a third party installation during an installer which has OC as part of it's install routine.   It could be that traces or mentions of OC are present in the registry, but then again so is just about everything we do on the PC so I'd probably say that was safe enough to ignore.

Then we move on to the issue of musicnotes.com and again, I'm a tad confused, because I don't actually see any mention of the service being free at all mate - I see "free stuff" in the menu but that's about it - as for the download itself, yes, that does contain OpenCandy but it's VERY clearly marked as such, in fact, I'd actually go as far as to say it's by far the most honest of installers I've seen yet as it gives a very big warning about the use of OpenCandy - so, as I say, I'm kinda confused mate where all the concern is coming from

[Claw]

Ok,then just drop the issue Marko,,I'm confused too. One man (a Dr.) claims he has a print out from Musicnotes that says "download sheetmusic free"and that he actually did a couple of times before getting billed. The OC issue is just that during scans they keep coming up with threats, especially MSE,so they were concerned they may have something. When I scanned ,,, Musicnotes files were the only thing coming up. I see what you're seeing, but to please them I ran it to you, because I trust your judgement. They just still keep insisting that they were getting free music at first. And with thier scanners going off ,,I guess they were just scared.  I'm really "sorry" to put you through all that trouble ,,that was never my intention ,buddy, if you say it's"cool",,,then it's cool. Thank you very,,very much !!!!

[marko]

Claw mate, I have a saying ... "listen to everything, believe nothing" - I've worked in IT for too long now and I've heard everything from "it didn't used to do that" or "it only started doing that after you messed with it" and everybody's favourite "I didn't put that on there".   In other words, never take anything as gospel - if someone tells you something, don't believe it - don't necessarily disbelieve it either, but do verify it.

Most computer users who run into difficulties like this have a real bad habbit of omitting some of the important bits of info for us suckers who attempt to fix them - like what they really did to cause the issues

[Claw]

My wife says "smile". I say "if I'm smiling at you on the outside ,I'm laughing at you on the inside". She says after people leave"you need to be nice". I say"they were able to walk away ,,weren't they. See Marko my friend,,that's what happens to me when I'm "NICE". I'm just sorry it was trouble for you. I don't like to cause any trouble for my "FRIENDS" !!!! And buddy,,you are my friend.

[Gremlinn]

awwwwwww

[Claw]

Hey,,,,,,I couldn't afford violins !!!!