LionSea Smart PC Fixer: threat or menace?
July 29, 2013 4:55 AM Subscribe
Is LionSea Smart PC Fixer actual malware, or merely superfluous?
Found it on a customer machine with a near-fresh XP Professional SP3 installation. Since it looked and walked and quacked like every other fake "system optimizer" for Windows (its freebie mode "finds" all kinds of scary-looking problems that only the paid-for mode will "fix") I instantly uninstalled it on principle.
Googling it is kind of weird: I can't find a review on any reputable site, but there are lots of fakes. No review I could find compares this product to others, or goes anywhere near questioning the usefulness of Windows "system optimizers" in general. All of them read like carefully not-too-enthusiastic product endorsements, and none of them are in particularly convincing English.
The machine was also behaving kind of weird - lots of wireless disconnects, lots of Microsoft Update hangs - but the wireless improved after I removed a redundant driver entry and forced it to connect in G mode only, and Microsoft Update came good after about the fourth round of letting automatic updates install themselves and the eventual arrival of the Genuine Advantage Validation Tool. So I don't know whether to blame the flakiness on Smart PC Fixer or just on Windows XP with almost no post-SP3 updates running on a 1.1GHz Pentium Mobile.
Anybody else encountered this thing, or indeed anything else from LionSea? Am I looking here at mere run-of-the-mill scamware helped along by some quite successful Google gaming, or something more sinister?
Found it on a customer machine with a near-fresh XP Professional SP3 installation. Since it looked and walked and quacked like every other fake "system optimizer" for Windows (its freebie mode "finds" all kinds of scary-looking problems that only the paid-for mode will "fix") I instantly uninstalled it on principle.
Googling it is kind of weird: I can't find a review on any reputable site, but there are lots of fakes. No review I could find compares this product to others, or goes anywhere near questioning the usefulness of Windows "system optimizers" in general. All of them read like carefully not-too-enthusiastic product endorsements, and none of them are in particularly convincing English.
The machine was also behaving kind of weird - lots of wireless disconnects, lots of Microsoft Update hangs - but the wireless improved after I removed a redundant driver entry and forced it to connect in G mode only, and Microsoft Update came good after about the fourth round of letting automatic updates install themselves and the eventual arrival of the Genuine Advantage Validation Tool. So I don't know whether to blame the flakiness on Smart PC Fixer or just on Windows XP with almost no post-SP3 updates running on a 1.1GHz Pentium Mobile.
Anybody else encountered this thing, or indeed anything else from LionSea? Am I looking here at mere run-of-the-mill scamware helped along by some quite successful Google gaming, or something more sinister?
I'm curious why your customer would want to stick with XP. Malware protection is much better in later generations of Windows (as is driver handling). And now that XP support is kaput, it seems like problems with Windows Update will only get worse over time.
posted by Cardinal Fang! at 1:17 PM on July 29, 2013
posted by Cardinal Fang! at 1:17 PM on July 29, 2013
Response by poster: I'm curious why your customer would want to stick with XP.
Familiarity, driver compatibility for some fairly obscure old hardware, and low cost (it's the OEM system supplied with his used Toughbook). Also, MS are not going to stop updating XP completely until April next year, by which time this machine will be dedicated to running a home-built three-axis router table and won't have any networking active. Autorun for USB is already disabled, so I don't expect to need to clean it up.
It's running fine now that all available post-SP3 updates are in place, and none of my customary malware scanners found anything, so I think I'll call this one Job Done. I'll leave this thread unresolved, though, in case anybody does find something definitive on Smart PC Fixer.
posted by flabdablet at 11:46 PM on August 2, 2013
Familiarity, driver compatibility for some fairly obscure old hardware, and low cost (it's the OEM system supplied with his used Toughbook). Also, MS are not going to stop updating XP completely until April next year, by which time this machine will be dedicated to running a home-built three-axis router table and won't have any networking active. Autorun for USB is already disabled, so I don't expect to need to clean it up.
It's running fine now that all available post-SP3 updates are in place, and none of my customary malware scanners found anything, so I think I'll call this one Job Done. I'll leave this thread unresolved, though, in case anybody does find something definitive on Smart PC Fixer.
posted by flabdablet at 11:46 PM on August 2, 2013
I'd still say that I'm skeptical at best about the software as there's not much information online about it other than a myriad of fake-ish reviews (including on youtube). Actually that's the somewhat impressive part: the degree at which the product is being promoted. However these reviews also tend to mostly end up on throwaway blog pages or fake front-ends (eg. can't really see other reputable reviews on the same sites, or many of them were just copy/pasted from other sites...very fake vibe there).
There are some complaints that it is a ripoff, as well as atleast one comment that it came bundled with malware. But even on the negative end of the spectrum, not much there to go by.
But that being said...if it works, it works I suppose. It's also probably good to make sure it's not violating privacy or communicating excessively back to its company. As for an alternative CCleaner is a well established tool that accomplishes similar tasks. (to be honest, it's the only "optimizer" program I use anymore as most products out there are a real let-down or outright scams intending to scare users into believing something is wrong in hopes they'll pay for the "pro" version when there really isn't...even said, CCleaner is no panacea either, and registry cleaners can cause all sorts of strange anomalies.)
Just to be on the safe side, I'd still give Autoruns, Process Explorer, Process Monitor, and GMER a go on it to see what kinds of hooks the software is making into the OS at runtime.
posted by samsara at 9:25 AM on August 3, 2013
There are some complaints that it is a ripoff, as well as atleast one comment that it came bundled with malware. But even on the negative end of the spectrum, not much there to go by.
But that being said...if it works, it works I suppose. It's also probably good to make sure it's not violating privacy or communicating excessively back to its company. As for an alternative CCleaner is a well established tool that accomplishes similar tasks. (to be honest, it's the only "optimizer" program I use anymore as most products out there are a real let-down or outright scams intending to scare users into believing something is wrong in hopes they'll pay for the "pro" version when there really isn't...even said, CCleaner is no panacea either, and registry cleaners can cause all sorts of strange anomalies.)
Just to be on the safe side, I'd still give Autoruns, Process Explorer, Process Monitor, and GMER a go on it to see what kinds of hooks the software is making into the OS at runtime.
posted by samsara at 9:25 AM on August 3, 2013
Response by poster: atleast one comment that it came bundled with malware
I didn't bother with MBAM until after I'd already uninstalled Smart PC Fixer, which I did pretty much on sight since my experience of "optimizers" as a class has not been positive, and MBAM didn't find anything left behind.
For what it's worth, the only Windows optimizer I've ever found that consistently does more good than harm is MyDefrag.
posted by flabdablet at 9:58 PM on August 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
I didn't bother with MBAM until after I'd already uninstalled Smart PC Fixer, which I did pretty much on sight since my experience of "optimizers" as a class has not been positive, and MBAM didn't find anything left behind.
For what it's worth, the only Windows optimizer I've ever found that consistently does more good than harm is MyDefrag.
posted by flabdablet at 9:58 PM on August 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by samsara at 8:22 AM on July 29, 2013