Over the past couple of weeks we’ve seen several computers with en.softronic.com downloader installed. It just so happens that those computers were also infected with a lot of malware. We’re not saying it came from the Softronic downloader, but the downloader is suspicious.
When you download from www.en.softronic.com and you click a clearly labeled download button, you’re redirected to a download page, with another button that says Download. But if you stop and read what you’re about to download, it’s a downloader (a download manager). So use caution if you use www.en.softronic.com for any downloads. We have not tested the downloader, nor are we saying it caused the malware infections we saw on several computers. But any time a company tries to get you to download something other than what you came for, then you have to look at that company with a jaded eye.
Our advice? Don’t use Softronic for downloading software. We highly recommend www.filehippo.com — a very nice site that makes downloading easy and worry free.
I looked at that hippo download site, and saw something that might interest me.
Do you know anything about Maxthon Cloud Browser 4.0.6.600 Beta?
I’m keen to find a browser I like that is universally acceptable, which IE9 isn’t. I have to change the compatibility depending where I’m working. Any advice or info would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Barb.
Maxthon has been around a long time — however it runs on the Internet Explorer engine – so basically Maxthon is Internet Explorer with a different face.
Thank you for the sound advice. This seems to a common problem with a number of download sites.
Regards
Walter Crawford.
My antivirus software has blocked the site every single time I’ve tried to download something. I don’t go there anymore, even when friends recommend me to get this or that free program.
I had a bad experience with this website just last week. I was looking for a free software download that would give me a template to use print out personal checks. I found one that sounded exactly like what I was looking for at Softronic.com. Yeah, right… After downloading it, I opened it and it turned out to be just a 7-day free trial version. Nowhere on the download page did I see anything that said that. So I used Geek Uninstaller – a GREAT program recommended by you – to uninstall it. About a half an hour after that, my antivirus program – Microsoft Security Essentials (another GREAT program recommended by you) – caught FIVE baddies and removed them for me. Three of them were Trojans. I can’t recall what the other two were. I then ran my free version of Malwarebytes – yes, you guys recommended this one, too – and it caught TWO baddies. After removing them, I ran a full scan with Microsoft Security Essentials, and nothing more was found. All I have to say is thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the great advice and recommendations you make to us. I have made added http://www.filehippo.com to my Favorites List and will use it from now on. Thanks again from one of your loyal followers. 🙂
After reading your warning about Softronic yesterday, today I clicked on a link from a blog, for free photo editing software and,the Softronic website came up. I quickly exited the website and went to FileHippo, as you suggested, and downloaded the software program from there. If it had not been for your warning, I could have downloaded malware without knowing it. Thanks to you guys, I was able to dodge a bullet. Thank you so much for your advice/tips/warnings, etc. You guys rock!
for the last week or more malwarebytes has been blocking what i’m assuming is an IP or something site many times a day: 50.97.214.162 when i googled it guess what site came up. LOL yep, Softronic. since i’ve never been there nor heard of it until i googled the number i can safely say that malwarebytes is doing its job. unfortunately, i can’t get Microsoft Essentials to download to this laptop since that last update they did that somehow got mangled in the mess so depend a lot on malwarebytes, superantispyware and AVG to protect my computer.
anyway, thanks for the headsup about Softronic.
I haven’t found any true malware coming from the Softronic
site.Having said that ,it is true that the software you’re aiming to download does come with an added “payload”.
Just before writing this I did another test and found that
the added software consists of the Softronic downloader plus
YTDownloader ,YTSearch (YT =YouTube)and an offer for Avast Free.All of them can be declined.
I always test this inside the sandbox of Sandboxie,so even if I accepted everything ,it would still be contained in the sandbox NOT in my system.
Nevertheless ,I prefer FileHippo too for my downloads also
because you can choose previous versions if needed.
Ditto – I’ve just had the same SOFTRONIC “redirect” experience & in order to uninstall, you’re “invited” to install another uninstaller. It also changes your browser automatically & redirects. Not good.
Do you know of any free PDF program that will allow you to edit that is safe to download with out any junk attached?
We featured one in our Premium newsletter a few weeks ago called PDF Escape. You don’t have to download anything, so you don’t have to worry about malware.
I uninstalled Chrome by mistake and tried to install again,I saw several apps hosted by Softronics. I installed Chrome using the Softronics app and right away i noticed that everytime i opened Chrome it asked for permission to run which was different than the previous version.I check the list of programs installed and found several programs i didn’t install. It turns out that when i would click run to get into Chrome i was giving permission for a host of other sites to install. Computer ended up starting to freeze up alot. I ended up installing new antivirus and found a ton of programs labeled ‘Could be harmful to your computer.It was determined that these programs were host programs. DO NOT USE ANYTHING WITH THE NAME SOFTRONICS ATTACHED. IT IS CORRUPT.