The author of the famous software library mode-ipc that gets over a million downloads per week found that it has some questionable code inside. The code itself behaves like this: if it finds out that your location is within Russia or Belarus it will try to replace the contents of all files on the computer with a heart emoji.
One important thing is that we here are not supporting the current Ukrainian situation and are against any type of violence or war but we also do not support this kind of behavior as well. If we look at this only from a technical perspective, we would then classify the mode-ipc library as malware and a harmful piece of code no matter the motivation behind it.
So this so-called protestware is well basically malware, but not always, it will protest when certain conditions are met. The issue with this is that companies and users should not be placed under harm if they do not share the personal view of the code author. Imagine if, for example, I would publish code to delete all pictures from your computer if my code found out that you do not like metal music. I guess you not liking metal music and war in Ukraine are two very different things but the source is the same, unreliable code that invades your privacy in order to serve one purpose, punishment for disagreeing with my personal views and that should not be allowed.
Not all protestware are equal, some will not harm your computer on purpose, they will just annoy you with some messages like viruses did in their infancy stages, others might place some developer sanctions but no matter the outcome basic principle is the same, it does something without user consent and without informing the user that something like that might happen.
On the internet, many blog posts and discussions were open about this issue and its morality. Discussion is still active with different takes on the situation and how to prevent it. Our take on this matter is that professional developers should have standards and not submit to doing harm for the sake of personal views and feelings.
In the long run, this kind of behavior and practice can only harm developers involved in this kind of entanglement. Infected libraries will in time stop being used since people would not trust them and authors will have a stain on their name as impulsive or not trustworthy.
EliteUnzip is a program developed by Mindspark Interactive. This program lets you compress and extract all the popular archive types.
From the Author:
Elite Unzip is a program for creating and extracting archive files; it has support for over 20 file formats. This application downloads onto your computer in two parts: one for your desktop, and one for your browser. They both work together to make packing and unpacking archive files easy.
While EliteUnzip itself is not a threat, it comes bundled with other software that might cause a problem to your computer.
Due to its bundled nature, several anti-virus scanners have marked EliteUznip as a Potentially Unwanted Program and is therefore not recommended to keep on y our computer, especially because there are other free programs that do the same functions without the additional bundled software.
Some Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 users are having a hard time upgrading to Windows 10 as they are being prompted for a product key. By default, the Windows 10 operating system does not require a product key and users should not be prompted for one, given you upgraded your computer from an activated Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 license or from the Windows 10 Preview build. However, there are some users encountering this problem and there are several reasons for this.
There are a few reasons why some users are being prompted for a product key when upgrading to Windows 10:
Before you can fix this problem, you need to know why you’re being prompted for a product key. Some things you should know about Windows 10 product key activation are the following:
Now, if ever you’re prompted for a product key when you’re upgrading to Windows 10, you can apply the following methods:
If you’ve been prompted for a product key upon upgrading to Windows 10, you should click on the “Do this later” option. Wait for a few days then Windows 10 will get activated automatically.
One of the reasons Windows users are being prompted for a product key when upgrading to Windows 10 is that they have downloaded a wrong edition of Windows 10 and do not correspond with your current system.
NOTE: Users of Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8.0 Enterprise, and Windows 8.1 Enterprise are not eligible for the free upgrade offer.
If your Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 is not genuine or activated, you will get prompted for a product key. You need to make sure first your current system is activated.
Another thing you can try doing is to run the system file checker utility to scan if there are any broken operating system files. In doing so, you’ll be able to detect problems that might be preventing the product activation of your Windows 10 upgrade.
If in case you’ve exhausted all your resources and you are still being prompted for a product key when upgrading to Windows 10, you can try contacting the Microsoft Activation Center for further details. Check here for the appropriate telephone numbers to contact.
If you still experience the error after doing the methods above, you might want to try a powerful and trusted automated tool to fix the job.
MyFunCards Toolbar is a browser hijacking extension for Google Chrome made by Mindspark Interactive. This extension installs a toolbar for your browser, changes your default search engine, and lowers the general performance of your browser. This extension has access to your personal information, injects your search results with potentially dangerous ads, and possibly breaks some of the browser functions. Since this extension injects its code into too many files and has access to all your browser details, upon removing it you will lose all your browser settings, themes, and login information. MyFunCards is considered a potentially unwanted application, and as a result, is flagged for optional removal by many anti-malware programs.
“Windows Firewall and <Third party firewall name> Firewall are both turned off; tap or click to see available options”.This particular error could be caused by a lot of factors but when you manually check the firewall, you’ll find that there really is nothing wrong with both the Windows Firewall and the third party firewall. So if both the Windows Firewall and third-party firewalls like McAfee, Comodo, and many others are both turned off in Windows 10, then you need to do several things to resolve the problem – you need to check the supporting services that are required and uninstall and then reinstall the third party firewall on your computer. For more instructions, refer to the options provided below.