Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2019 May 26

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May 26

Surreal experience with Windows 10

I have an HP Pavilion with Windows 10. I use the computer every day. I seldom turn the power off, mostly I put it to sleep. I am not interested in going to "bad" places on the Internet. I do some programming in C++ and C# for myself. I have projects. Yesterday I noticed a strange picture on the desktop. It was a black picture of a lobster about half an inch across. It was not attached to any window but could be moved slightly if I poked it with a cursor.

I decided it was a bug and started Spybot Search and Destroy - my antivirus and antimalware application. Even before the Spybot S&D finished the job the picture of the lobster disappeared and today I don't have it.

When SB S&D runs it shows you the files it is going through and I noticed one that scared me to death. It was Candy Crush Soda Saga. I've never heard of this game and have no idea how it ended up in my directory. I then checked "Install or remove programs" - this Candy Crush is not there, so I cannot remove it. It appears to be a Google application. Google is everywhere!

My only option may be to go to the register, remove some entries there and kill the directory where this gamer resides. I just checked. There are probably close to two dozen entries in the register for this malware.

What shall I do? I've been thinking for months about buying a programmable hardware router like a Sisco. I even posted here once on the subject but still my computer is wide open to Internet malware. Thanks, AboutFace 22 (talk) 16:59, 26 May 2019 (UTC)

It is not a malware. You can read details here. Ruslik_Zero 20:45, 26 May 2019 (UTC)

Anything which installs other software without telling you ought to be considered malware. :-) Try upgrading to penguin land! Martin of Sheffield (talk) 09:18, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

Of course it is malware. I've never played computer games and have no interest to learn how to do it. Now, I opened regedt32 but I always do it from cmd prompt and I don't know how to enter the admin password which is required for any changes in the registry. Anybody knows how to do it in the cmd prompt? It is a different story in Ubuntu OS. Thanks, - AboutFace 22 (talk) 16:53, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

We should not water down the meaning of "malware" to use it to mean "software that I don't want". Our article defines malware as "software intentionally designed to cause damage to a computer, server, client, or computer network". A game that you don't want to play is not malware, nor is even a system that installs a game that you don't want to play. That doesn't mean that this practice isn't objectionable, but there's no malware involved. CodeTalker (talk) 22:55, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

Being serious for a moment, spyware falls into the category of malware (see lead ¶1, sentence 3 and §1 ¶2) which is why I treat the products of either Microsoft or Google with extreme suspicion. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 15:26, 28 May 2019 (UTC)

Have you tried the obvious? Log in using an Admin account and run regedit from right click on the windows button?--Phil Holmes (talk) 17:38, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

(ec) @AboutFace 22: AFAIK you can't just enter the admin's password in cmd. You can, however, run a cmd session as administrator - right-click a link to cmd and see available options. Then all programs started from that session run on admin privileges, too. --CiaPan (talk) 17:42, 27 May 2019 (UTC)
You can also use the same method on the regedit link to run it as admin without calling cmd. --CiaPan (talk) 17:44, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

I feel I should point out that AFAIK it's never been true that the only way to remove Candy Crush Saga has been by the suggestion outlined by the OP. See this thread [1] for extensive discussion. To some extent it does depend what you mean by remove [2] [3] but still, if you think that doing what was outlined is the only way to deal with it, you're probably wrong. (I mean even this complicated process which AFAIK would never apply to Candy Crush [4] doesn't require regediting.)

I would note that Candy Crush Saga does show up in the Add or Remove Programs function in the new "Metro"/UWP Settings app for me. AFAIK it's been like this for a long time [5]. OTOH, I think right clicking on it and choosing uninstall has also worked either for ever or a long time and achieves the same functionality. It will not show up in the "Uninstall or change a program" setting of the Control Panel because UWP apps never show up there and I'm fairly sure never will.

Now if you want to completely prevent Windows installing UWP apps without asking you which may include re-installing Candy Crush, that's a different and more complicated question that has depended on version of Windows. But even then it hasn't always generally required registry editing AFAIK.

In any case, it also wasn't what was outlined in the original post which is important because if you're going to be editing registry you should have some basic idea of what you're doing. In fact, personally while I don't think editing a registry is as big a deal as it's sometimes made things out to be, although can definitely completely screw up your Windows install if you don't know what you're doing; I'm not sure it's something you should ever be doing if you can't work out to start regedit as an admin, especially in the modern internet and search engine world.

Nil Einne (talk) 03:50, 28 May 2019 (UTC)