FLV Player Popup, Remove the Unwanted Program by Somoto Ltd

FLV Player Popup

OUTLINE

• Negative response to FLV Player
• The definition of FLV Player
• Why FLV Player keeps popping up its update or other pop ups?
• Is there any harms to the computer?
• Way to help remove and stop FLV Player popups

Customer Response Towards FLV Player

1. "I must have missed the moment when cnet went from trusted download source to nightmare delivery system, but this was ridiculously complex to undo."
2. "This is filled with extra programs that you arent warned about, starting with the cnet downloader, never mind the flv player."
3. "lets just say it installed 2 adware/malware programs and it appears there is no flv player in the install as it didn't install one after telling me it did... yep its really like that..."

All these are quoted from the comments on CNET.

What Is FLV Player?

It claims to be handy and simple video player, yet it has been widely resisted by PC users as it:

1. FLV Player frequently pops up to interfere user experience.
2. Additional programs and web applications are installed
3. FLV Player will not be removed from Control Panel or by conventional methods.
4. The installation of FLV Player slows down the overall PC performance.

According to the behaviors and the scenarios FLV Player triggers, the program has been called by security companies as PUP (potentially unwanted program) that is not technically a virus but it does exhibit plenty of malicious traits. Findings show that the FLV Player installer is packed with the Webcake, Babylon browser hijacker, Optimizer Pro registry cleaner and other PUPs without mention.

The Purpose of FLV Player

What FLV Player targets is simple, that is to promote itself and get money by:

1. helping other PUPs to land on machines.
2. directing the traffic intercepted from certain machine to partners’ sites.

Because of the simple target, FLV Player does adopt some techniques that could be harmful to targeted machines.


Some Potential Dangers from FLV Player
By introducing in many more applications without obtaining permission, the installation of FLV Player would lead to unreasonably-used resource. This would:

1. leave little CPU to sustain the normal operation of pivotal sections, such as security defense.
2. result in poor PC performance and thus hinder quick response to harms.

The fact that FLV Player is bundled with PUPs could augment the chance to be capitalized by infections as most of the PUPs are created to generate income rapidly and thus they are not strictly built to show bugs. Once the bug is exploited, the PUP controlled machine will be then attacked too.

Be noted that loosely-built web applications can threat your information security as BHO and JS techniques are basic to build a web page. Once being capitalized by infections, the BHO technique would help hook API and thus preload vicious codes without too much interruption; JS technique will be utilized to record in-put information.

Steps Show How to Remove FLV Player

1. Reset browser settings.

IE
Tools menu > Internet Options > Advanced tab > Restore Defaults button > OK.

Firefox
Firefox button > Help > Troubleshooting information > ‘Reset Firefox’ button.

Chrome
‘Customize and Control Google Chrome’ menu > ‘Options’ > ‘Under the Hood’ > ‘Reset to Defaults’ button.

Opera
Show hidden files and folders (explicit instruction shown in Step3) > navigate to "C:\Users\user_name\AppData\Roaming\Opera\Opera\" > remove Operapref.ini.

Safari
Safari menu > ‘Reset Safari’ > tick all given options > ‘Reset’ button.




2. Enable pop-up blocker to stop FLV Player popup.

IE
Tools > Options > Privacy tab > “Block pop-ups” > stop FLV Player's popup.

Firefox
Tools > Options > Web features button > block FLV Player's popups.

Chrome
Tool menu > Options > “Under the Hood” tab > “Content Settings” > “Pop-ups” > “Exceptions” > rule out FLV Player.

Opera
Opera’s menu > “settings” > “Preference” > General tab > “Pop-up” > “Block Unwanted Pop-ups” > OK button.

Safari
“Safari” > “Preference”>“Security” tab > check “Block pop-up windows".




3. Remove all the Temp files under the following directories.

Windows 7/XP/Vista
Click open ‘Control Panel’ > search for ‘Folder Options’ > tap View tab > tick ‘Show hidden files and folders' and non-tick 'Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)’.

show hidden files and folders on Windows7/XP/Vista

Windows 8
Start screen > open any folder > open Windows Explorer > select View tab > Tick ‘File name extensions’ and ‘Hidden items’ options. 

show hidden files and folders on Windows8 to remove the items related to FLV Player

• navigate to the following directories and remove all the files and folders:

C:\WINDOWS\Temp
C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Local Settings\Temp
C:\Documents and Settings\[user name]\Local Settings\Temporary Internet File

•  remove the items generated on the day when FLV Player firstly appears under the following listed items:
  
  (tip:
  1. the below directories can be different on other system
  2. to locate the related items, one should find out the ones were created on the day when FLV Player was firstly detected.)
  

  To show the date, one should:right click on the space of a window that is under inspection > select "Arrange by" > select "day")

  

  show the creation date of the items related to FLV Player

  %Program Files%\Common Files\
  C:\Windows
  C:\Windows\System32
  C:\Users\[your username]\Documents\
  C:\users\user\appdata\local\
  C:\Program Files\

Mac OS X
Finder > Utilities folder > terminal:

access Mac's Terminal to remove the temp files generated by FLV Player

1. type

   cd ~/Library/Logs
   sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Logs/*

   and press Return button.


2. type

   rm -rf ~/Library/Safari/Downloads.plist
   cd ~/Library/Caches
   sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/*

   and press Return button.

4. Search for and remove the items related to FLV Player.

Click open random folder and hit on Search icon, type "FLV Player" in all the search blanks and hit Enter button so as to remove all the detection.

Some Tips

Drive-by download is the second major propagation way for FLV Player. If one wants to remove FLV Player permanently, one should follow good PC practices in daily life. Also, depending on the Operating System installed, the images, directories displayed in this article might differ from what you observe when following these instructions on your computer. This is why only removal thread is available and certain level of computer skills and knowledge are required to carry out the above offered steps.