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Ginya's Browser Companion undetectable?

  • 4 February 2013
  • 8 replies
  • 58 views

I've had this program for a week before I bought Webroot, and for the life of me I cannot get rid of it. I try to remove it as a addon on my browser but it heals itself and it reappears the next time I open Firefox... Could Webroot locate this and burn it to the heavens for me? lol
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Best answer by YegorP 5 February 2013, 00:39

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Userlevel 7
Hey internalmemory,
 
Thanks for sharing your not-so-pleasant experience with this pesky add-on; I hadn't seen it mentioned before here on the Community! If we're dealing with adware, then the best way to go about this is to submit a support ticket so one of our threat researchers can help get it removed. But fortunately, that's an "IF", we can test before going the support ticket route!
 
I know that you said you've already tried removing the add-on in Firefox only to see it reappear when you go back in. Did you try uninstalling it from the control panel first? If not, that's the first place we should start. Go to Control Panel>Uninstall a program>search for Browser Companion Helper and uninstall it. *It may have come with additional 'stuff' that could be hidden so look for anything from "Ginyas" in your Program list.
 
After removing them via the Control Panel, go into Firefox and remove the add-on as you did before.
 
Hope that helps! Let me know if that works for you!
It doesn't show up in my control panel program list at all, much like another program I'm aiming to get rid of afterwards called "Messenger Plus! (For skype)" since it has no practical use and I am suspicious that it's up to no good. So I looked through Bing and each site keeps telling me to use a program called SpyHunter to remove Ginya's malware - so far with it it supposedly has found 16 intrusions where as Webroot has found non in the past 3 days.
Userlevel 7
Thanks for the update, internalmemory.
 
It gets a bit tricky when dealing with programs such as this "Ginya's Browser Companion". The reason being is that adware (for example an ad/add-on/pop-up that redirects to a malicious site) is different than a PUA (potentially unwanted application), in that a PUA isn't considered malware. For this reason, SecureAnywhere doesn't scan for PUA's, but rather focuses on protecting your computer from malware and other serious infections. SpyHunter does scan for PUA's so this would explain the 16 intrusions it's picking up.
 
That said, we can definitely take a look at this for you to make sure that nothing malicious is involved here. Please follow the aforementioned support ticket link to send us a log of the files SpyHunter is finding so that one of our threat researchers can evaluate them to make sure they're clean. They typically get back to you quickly and will help get to the bottom of this.
 
In the meantime, let me know if  you have any other questions!
Okay I will do that after SpyHunter scan is finished. Should there be a log file or something that I'll be able to submit? So far it reports to have found 29 problems. Yet oddly enough, none of them are of Ginya's.

It reports:
[rk] Antivirus Blocking Rules (taskmgr.exe)

-Rogue Windows Antivirus Pro
[d] Windows Antivirus Pro
[f] ANTI_files.exe

-Blekko
[rk] Blekkotb
[rv] Toolbar_enabled
[rv] Toolbar_hide_time
other files... (8 infections total)

-Claro-Search.com
(9 infections)

-Snap-do
(5 infections)

-Atlas DMT
(3 infections)

-Doubleclick
(1 infection)
Userlevel 7
I'm not sure if SpyHunter will give you a log file after the scan is done, but if not, you can just copy the results into the ticket message. It should give you a log file, though. Let me know if anything from Ginya's comes up once the scan is done!
 
Thanks,
Userlevel 7
Badge +6
When stuff isn't easy remove it starts changing from PUA to junkware.
Hmmm well the scan finished but that's all Spyhunter is without paying for, just a scan of the files. No sign of Ginya adware though, oddly.
Userlevel 7
Hey internalmemory,
 
It sounds like it may in fact just be a PUA and not adware, but I know you said you want to get it off and make sure it's not malicious. Please proceed to submit the support ticket and explain the situation. You can just copy and paste the messages you posted here on the Community and explain that you are having trouble removing it and want to make sure it's not malicious.
Let me know if you have other questions.

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