How to uninstall Aurora. In theory...

"We are now defining a strategy to move forward and improve our practices. If the anti-spyware community can help us identify things that are happening that are not in compliance with what I want our practices to be, then I welcome their input. I think that Vitalsecurity.org is one example [of a blog that pointed out a problem with unapproved installations of Direct Revenue's ad clients, and thereafter Direct Revenue fixed it]." Jean-Philippe Maheu, Direct Revenue CEO

Interesting! A while back Brad Stone (Newsweek reporter well known for excellent pieces about the Adware / Spyware scene) got in touch and asked me a few questions. I'm sure he won't mind me mentioning that the Direct Revenue CEO had dropped me into the conversation, though at that point I had no idea as the context. Well now I do, and an "I love Vitalsecurity.org" T-Shirt is in the post. However...the full article does raise some more questions, and I'm interested to see what the answers may bring...

"Aurora was introduced six weeks before I joined. Our distribution is getting cleaner and cleaner and we have a lot of quality controls that we put in place. When we see exploits, or ways for our software to be downloaded without proper disclosure, we do terminate our distribution. We've done that a few times over the past two months."

Well, check this out, JP - you're clearly aware of this site and what fun we have here(!), but I can still see those wonderful IM virus-installers chugging away and (at present) still installing Aurora (and other software, to be fair) with no EULAs displayed at all. I would say the guys behind these installs are most likely breaking every rule in your naughty affiliate book, so I would say to you - Why are these installs still taking place? And more to the point, would you like to see exactly why people hate Aurora so much? I present for your viewing entertainment, the standard uninstall process that faces a "customer" of the Aurora ad-client. Yes, you guessed it - it sucks.

Here we have a standard PC with Aurora installed on it, and nothing else advert-wise. Pretty soon, Aurora pops open its first window (click to enlarge). Unfortunately it's blank, which doesn't make a very good screenshot so I added my own picture. Does that mean I get ten zillion pounds because you all saw it? So anyway - I click the question mark to see what this Aurora thing is. Imagine my dismay when the damn tell-me-about-it page doesn't work. A few more goes, and I finally get something to read. Okay, so I now have to go visit some other website (or at least, attempt to, because my desktop is now buried under anything up to five other Aurora windows of various shapes and sizes).

Mypctuneup.com, here we come...wait! What's this, sneaking in under the radar? Aurora is already on my system, and is already fully functional. So why the Hell is Nail.exe appearing on my system just after I hit the Aurora uninstaller website?! Check out the Snoop log - you can clearly see Nail.exe stumbling onto the scene not long after Mypctuneup.com is opened up. Coincidence? Bad timing? Act of God? Who knows, but as the song goes, whoop, there it is! You know the drill by now, but click that sucker to enlarge and be glad this isn't your PC.

At this point, you're probably wanting to see something interesting regarding Nail.exe, right? Well today is your lucky day! Check this out for what should be filed in the very, very odd pile - this screenshot shows Nail entries in both the Prefetch and the Windows directories. But while the Prefetch entry has the correct date, the Windows entry shows as the 24th of September, 2001?!

That's pretty impressive, considering Aurora and Nail weren't even out back then.

Onto the final chapter of this crazy story. I downloaded the Aurora removal tool from the website and got ready to rumble. Clicking it, I looked on in amazement as....well, click the image and see for yourself. OH NOES!!112 just about sums it up, methinks.

So let me get this straight - so far, we have had...an Aurora description page that is up and down like a yoyo, Nail.exe appearing for no apparent reason whilst visiting the Aurora uninistall site and (to top it all off), the damn uninstaller not actually doing very much apart from convincing the end-user that hitting the PC with a hammer is a very good idea.

But here comes the punchline, kids!

At this point, the desperate user will probably remember good old Windows add / remove programs. That won't let you down, right? Well...actually....

Shave and a haircut, two bits (or, to put it another way, click the image to enlarge). You'd never have believed it, but this is a complete and utter waste of time too!Try removing the ABI network from here, and you get....a popup telling you to visit Mypctuneup.com!!!!

Am I the only one that thinks this digital merry-go-round is anything but merry? Maybe this is some kind of joke at my expense, but what in God's name does the average user do at this point apart from download a shedload of antispyware applications and blitz the hard-drive? Who on earth could possibly justify these kind of antics as an integral part of everyday internet activities?

Sorry, JP, but you have to admit - this really does suck. Bottom line, you may well be reforming the more "disagreeable" elements of the online advertising world that currently exists, but the above is a daytrip to lunacy city-central and I'm only holding a one-way ticket.

For now, I'm holding onto that Vitalsecurity.org T-Shirt.