What The He** is This?
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Google Shortcuts
  1-25-12, 9:59pm | Post
#1
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I leave my Acer laptop online and on most of the time with Chrome open so I can check in on new member validations throughout the day. Today I came back downstairs to my desk and wiggled the mouse to turn the HDTV display back on and a new tab has opened by itself in my Chrome browser and it says:
QUOTE Yay! Google Shortcuts v1.6.2.0 has been installed successfully! And underneath that it says: QUOTE Tip: Click here to scan for System Errors and optimize PC performance after installing new software. What the heck is Google Shortcuts and why is it allowed to install itself without my permission into the Chrome browser? I can't even make Chrome update a page by itself, I always have to do a page refresh to get the current new member status on the home page, but yet the browser can open, install and refresh some new piece of Google stuff without any action on my part? How do I turn that kind of thing off, and, is this even legitimate Google-ware? Oddly, nothing comes up on a google search of "Google Shortcuts" it doesn't even auto fill the search terms, it says instead to "press enter to search" |
Licensed Pilot & Resident Bird Brain  
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1-26-12, 1:52am | Post
#2
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It appears to be this extension, available for install here.
It is NOT a Google-sponsored thing. I have no idea how it got installed, but a quick search shows other people have had this happen too. Since it's an open-source extension, it could be a "hacked" version. I would definitely recommend uninstalling or doing a system restore until we figure out how this happened. |
Captain Obvious
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1-26-12, 3:41am | Post
#3
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Wings, did the message look like this:
link Most likely, this is an extension that you had already installed in the past. It looks like version 1.6.2.0 was released yesterday. If you already had the extension installed, then I believe Google's servers will automatically install updated versions as they become available. This extension appears to open the web page above whenever it is updated. The "Click here to scan for System Errors..." link is unfortunate, but it appears to be an affiliate link for some antivirus software, so I guess that's how the developer makes money off of the extension. So, can you think back and remember if you might have installed Google Shortcuts extension some time in the distant past? Ref: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chro...25772&hl=en |
Captain Obvious
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1-26-12, 8:59am | Post
#4
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QUOTE (garsh @ 1-26-12, 6:41am)  Wings, did the message look like this: link Most likely, this is an extension that you had already installed in the past. It looks like version 1.6.2.0 was released yesterday. If you already had the extension installed, then I believe Google's servers will automatically install updated versions as they become available. This extension appears to open the web page above whenever it is updated. The "Click here to scan for System Errors..." link is unfortunate, but it appears to be an affiliate link for some antivirus software, so I guess that's how the developer makes money off of the extension. So, can you think back and remember if you might have installed Google Shortcuts extension some time in the distant past? Ref: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chro...25772&hl=en Yes, that is exactly how it looked. I really don't remember installing anything to Chrome other than the script that you made us for B$. I think that the icon for Google shortcuts has been there (in between the bookmarks star and the customize chrome wrench) ever since I started using Chrome. Thanks for checking this out so quickly, should I uninstall the app or at least disable it? It is something that I have never used. |
Licensed Pilot & Resident Bird Brain
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1-26-12, 10:30am | Post
#5
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QUOTE (WingsOverVA @ 1-26-12, 11:59am) I think that the icon for Google shortcuts has been there (in between the bookmarks star and the customize chrome wrench) ever since I started using Chrome. Interesting.It's definitely not added by Google. Perhaps you obtained your Chrome installation from somewhere other than Google originally, and they included it? QUOTE Thanks for checking this out so quickly, should I uninstall the app or at least disable it? It is something that I have never used. Yeah, I think you can just uninstall it, and you'll be fine. |
Captain Obvious
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1-26-12, 4:06pm | Post
#6
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scary stuff!
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blonde 
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