Following malware, Punto (Yandex) also decided to break the interface

    In recent days, probably everyone using Punto Switcher (starting with some, not very old version) and having access to the Internet, received such a message as in the screenshot:
    Punto Switcher: update available.

    What is criminal about this, the reader will ask?
    The essence of the situation is suggested by the word “everything” in the first sentence. “Everything” - this means “ even those who were not going to learn and update .” The following screenshot illustrates the illustration:


    It shows that the only setting in the interface that indicates "Do not check for updates" is installed. But, after Google Chrome (or not, viruses did it first, then malware, and only after them Google Chrome) more than a year ago, and after a bewildered pause, Firefox (in July 2012), the programs decide they know better the needs of stupid users who need to install updates without warning. But at the same time, they honestly do not say anything in the interface, do not mislead readers, and in the news they warn that they will be updated without demand.

    Yandex, the reader will say, is softer: it only warns of an update. But at the same time, he himself violates his own interface: is it unlikely that over the past year the reset checkbox of the “Check for updates” setting has begun to mean the opposite, namely, “check for updates” (checked on 3 computers), or am I behind the times? Therefore, I assume that those who have the checkbox installed, that is all, received messages.

    (For more information: version 3.2.8 wants to install on the update button; a version that behaves like this - 3.2.6 from 10/21/2011 - either the installer silently entered the system in other ways (unlikely), or even then, almost a year ago, in version 3.2.6, they installed this feature.) For information, I don’t have any software and bars from Yandex on Yandex on any computer (except for one Punto Switcher), as well as other caring guards, and all computers are checked by Kaspersky Rescue Disk with the bases of 22 September held just yesterday).

    UPD : appeared on toyaschie experts - x0rHamster unearthed the cause:
    # September 28 7:08
    Ta-a-a-ak. I dug quite a bit before work, but was satisfied with the result (for I did not check it more thoroughly). Judging by the logs from AppData, Punto was absolutely spitting that I right from the moment of installation unchecked “Check for updates” - it checked as well as checked. This all happened through COM calls to BITS (in fact, this output was taken from dllhost.exe, which appeared during updates, and morning-inattentive reading of logs), through which Windows Update and a couple of very awkward (though it is for this purpose that it was made), and it works through svchost.exe, which is probably enabled in firewalls (otherwise Windows itself will cough nervously). I learned how to manually check for updates, because they did not come up with a-la Fx buttons - in the registry, reset the time of the last and next check and restart the computer. And finally, I deleted the folder with the explicit name Updater from the Punto program directory - the message for the next reboot did not appear, the logs did not update, the parameters in the registry also did not change (as they were zeros, they remained). So far, so here, although my findings are more like medieval doctors with lobotomy.

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