Product: Advanced SystemCare 5 Free (ASC 5 Free) - Platform: Windows XP Professional (SP 3) - Problem: If a user tries to uninstall IObit's Advanced SystemCare 5 Free product suite via the Windows 'Add or Remove Programs' utility, the Trojan-horse application 'UninstallPromote. Exe' (a component of IObit's ASC 5 Free suite) launches, locks up 'Add or Remove Programs' — forcing the user to terminate the utility via Task Manager, while also offering a bogus "free" license for — upgrade to — Advanced SystemCare 5 Pro suite.
Important Note: ClamAV recognizes 'UninstallPromote. Exe' as a 'Potentially Unwanted Program' (PUA), according to the report on this application at VirusTotal.com.
Not only does UninstallPromote launch the user's default Web browser to the bogus "free" upgrade to IObit Advanced SystemCare 5 Pro, which is a TrialPay.com scam offer, but UninstallPromote (therefore, IObit) uses FUD ("Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt") in the first of the two pop-ups that hijack and paralyze Add or Remove Programs utility and launch the default Web browser without the user's consent, accessing TrialPay (if the user believes the "Get it [sic] Free" pitch and select said graphic — but computer users never should trust the offers or warnings of software that causes unwanted or unexpected behavior — which is the behavior of UninstallPromote, technically making it a "Trojan horse" and not merely "potentially unwanted software."
IObit added the 'UninstallPromote. Exe' [Trojan-horse] "feature" to Advanced SystemCare Free approximately four months ago, according to Symantec's 'File Insight' component, which fails to recognize the threat the program poses (because "force-quitting" Windows applications, services, or utilities can, and often will, cause temporary or permanent system instability) and if a user chooses to remove/uninstall a program, the user has the right to do so without a false warning (FUD) that after removing that application/suite, her or his "computer may face critical errors slowing it down." (Irony: In this case, uninstalling Advanced SystemCare Free 5 drastically improved the sluggish boot speed and slow performance that ACS actually was causing.)
Summary: By including 'UninstallPromote. Exe' with the Advanced SystemCare 5 Free suite, IObit literally has made a free application suite a "ripoff"; IObit has every right to affiliate itself with TrialPay, although I avoid patronizing any company with uses the "services" of TrialPay, but 'UninstallPromote. Exe' is an insidious security risk that ensures I will avoid all IObit products, as well as to warn others who must use the Windows platform about IObit's free Advanced SystemCare suite.
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