Is MacUpdate.com/ a legitimate site?

I beg to differ with you regarding MacKeeper. I was redirected - without my intervention - to a Russian site. It took control of my Mac and told me to download MacKeeper because I had 8,572 viruses on my Mac. Other than that, my Mac was completely unresponsive - had to do a hard shutdown. Because of Resume, every time I booted up, the browser automatically directed me to the same Russian site. I finally wiped and reinstalled.

You may call this legitimate - I do not; it is questionable at best. But that is just my humble opinion and I will not change it.

As for the rest of his posts (the advertising) - I don't see the requisite disclaimer.

I guess it's a matter of opinion. Of course they need to be careful, and avoid advertisement of software that is truly malicious; however, I do disagree that a company should blacklist an advertiser simply for bad reviews. Just like a store selling a product on its shelves, should that product be bad then nobody would buy it and the company would stop selling it. I dont see much reason to hate and lambast Home Depot because it sells crappy sealants along with good ones. Despite some people's claims, MacKeeper does have "some" utility, even if that utility may ultimately not be worth the price and effort.

While I doubt the site "took control" of your Mac (at least in how I'm directly interpreting the term), I dont doubt that you had a bad experience with the company.

I wonder if you might have been hit by the prior MacDefender malware (which morphed into many names similar to MacKeeper, such as "MacShield" and "MacScan"), which would falsely claim people's macs were infected with numerous malware.

As for dealing with Resume, there are numerous ways to manage this without having to take the extreme measure of wiping and reinstalling.

I've since dealt with Resume and it has not bothered me (locked the Saved Application State folder); and I believe it was MacKeeper because it occurred long before the MacDefender appeared. I call it "taking control" because I was unable to quit the browser, unable to force quit anything, could not access the File menu (or anything else) - the only thing working was a display of a counter flashing numbers of the supposed viruses I had and "click here to download/pay" buttons. In other words, my computer was completely unusable and the only thing that did work was hitting the power button. That is pretty much taking control?

That is bizarre. I've never run into such an issue, and my suspicion is that it was an odd problem with Safari rather than an intent to crash your system...just a guess though.

Edit: oops, I'm not reading carefully.

I have to disagree with anyone who says MacKeeper is not a Trojan. MacKeeper is like a trojan, in that they use advertising on some of the most prominent sites to convince you to download it, and then do not provide a clean way to uninstall it. The advertising is effective because Apple has never addressed the real reason why the system slows down for so many people. People on this board have had to find alternative ways to remove it that are not using MacKeeper's own methods. Alerts of a system becoming too full are frequently way too late, and should be done at times when it is no more than 85% full, which arbitrarily has been found to be a breaking point. Then it is not obvious to many that they can force quit applications that aren't behaving, and they ruin their directory trying to reboot the Mac manually when it freezes. If Apple put a timer on all applications within a reasonable timeout period saying "Application so-so has stopped responding, do you wish to force quit it losing your changes" I think more people would be less apt to download all these optimziation tools. The default probably should be 15 or 30 seconds with an easily customizable setting in the System Preferences, and in the force quit dialog. The fact that so many come in here trying to remove it, highlight that the need is great for a better error management system. It also highlights the need for more people to learn to backp their systems. Just my two cents for what they are worth.

Chad,

If you want MacUpdate to have more respect, remove the MacKeeper advertising post haste. I've sent e-mails to your site requesting it be removed because of its problems. People don't like their machines being infiltrated by others for anything. And given Versiontracker's being taken over by C!Net, and the difficulty searching C!Net's engines for system specific downloads, a better download site has been needed since the takeover. Until I discovered MacKeeper was as bad as it was, I never hesitated recommending MacUpdate. Now I have to include a disclaimer, don't download it. I understand websites have to earn a dime, but don't do so at other's demise. In fact it sites like yours that prevent people from having to use Torrent sites, as they can find legitimate downloads for all sorts of things. Torrents are typically a potshot when it comes to getting a legit download. Not to mention many such applications that deal with Torrents or Peer2Peer file sharing also open your machine up as a file server making your own machine a place where any random beta program might end up in your folder, and running it could make your machine unstable. Having a site where only legit applications are available in an easy searchable manner outside the App Store is a boon. So please consider what gets posted on your site more carefully. Thank you.

a brody wrote:

I have to disagree with anyone who says MacKeeper is not a Trojan. MacKeeper is like a trojan, in that they use advertising on some of the most prominent sites to convince you to download it, and then do not provide a clean way to uninstall it.

To the best of my knowledge this doesnt constitute a trojan. Many software suites offer installation without a method for uninstalling. Java does this in OS X, and even Office for Mac does not have an uninstaller, and relies on you looking up the information on Microsoft's Site. By the same token, MacKeeper has online resources and a support forum with such instructions. I'm just not objectively seeing the difference.

I just want to come to the defense of bit torrent "clients" (which is actually what was being shown on MacUpdate... not a bit torrent "site". Many developers offer their products via torrents. It helps to keep bandwidth costs down (especially for smaller companies) and can often offer faster downloads. It's simply another means of software distribution. Having said that, of course torrent "sites" simply direct you to any torrent that they have data on... regardless of who created it or what it may contain. The link for any legitimate torrent is typically posted on the developer's site. Nearly all linux distros are available as torrents. To vehemently dismiss torrents as a legitimate means of distribution isn't really fair to those that that rely on distributing their software that way. By all means, if you want to advise against the use of torrent sites, please do so as they are a major source for the spread of all sorts of nasties.

No, but Topher, it isn't just bad reviews, they don't even acknowledge their software poses the risks that it does, nor are willing to fix it. Many have come in here to have it hose their system and are not getting any help from MacKeeper to solve the problem. The way it accesses the system poses grave risk for the operation of the system. Microsoft does actually have an uninstaller included with their packages at least as of Office 2004. If they had removed it recently on newer versions, I'm not aware of that. Java is being actively updated. MacKeeper on the other hand plasters the web with advertisements that help is needed, when it isn't. And the "help" that is given, is really negative to begin with.

That is bizarre. I've never run into such an issue, and my suspicion is that it was an odd problem with Safari rather than an intent to crash your system...just a guess though.

Yes, it was bizarre. Actually I don't use Safari. And, no, it was not a problem with FF; as soon as I was able to clear the cache, history, and cookies, it was fine (that was after I yanked the modem cord so Resume wouldn't automatically send me back). And it did crash my system of sorts although it was not a KP - it was working, but the site was controlling it (and the URL, which I copied and checked later) was somewhere behind what used to be the Iron Curtain. As a precaution, I then also wiped and reinstalled.

I'm not at all condoning the software, and agree that it is poorly made, has caused problems for people, and doesnt have the best PR and support staff, but despite this it is not malware. It might be "crapware" that people ought to avoid, but so far hasn't proven to be any more of a trojan than other programs. My main objection here is that Malware is specifically designed to steal and harm, whereas the problems people have had with MacKeeper is not from intent, and instead is from poor programming and buggy code. I think it's a fair stretch to link the two.

Furthermore, despite people's complaints MacKeeper is a popular program that many have installed, but we only hear from those who've had issues with it. The ones who do not have problems just continue on. For instance, my mom installed the software a while ago on her system, and hadn't experienced any issues. Her system has run fine for a while and I only found it when ensuring her system was clean of the latest Flashback threats. She claimed she used it periodically, but didnt see much difference after using it and so stopped, but her system hadn't experienced any problems.

I also leave open the possibility that older versions of MacKeeper were likely far more buggy than newer versions, and many of the complaints could be from those who have the older versions installed. I dont know this for fact since I dont follow the software, but it is a definite possibility.

As for Office, I've installed Office 2011 and cannot find an uninstaller utility either on my system or online, and from Google searches others have found the same--Microsoft did not include a removal tool. I believe there was one for 2004 and 2008, but its not available in 2011. Granted it's a volume license install that did not come on official media which might contain such a utility, but I cannot find it. Online searches bring up third-party uninstallers and Microsoft's KB instructions, but thats it.

The company requires your credit card information BEFORE requiring you to sign up with a password, and then doesn't let you get a password. It just resends the same information over and over. At least that was my experience. I received an authorization code but with no way to access it. I called the telephone number provided, waited 20 minutes, and then was given a recorded message that no customer service representatives were available and to leave a telephone number. I did, but no one returned my call. I have tried to unsubscribe, but I fear my credit card has been charged already. How good can this company be?

Are you talking about MacKeeper or MacUpdate (the original thread topic question)? After reading your post I assume you mean MacKeeper, but would have liked to seen you be more clear for other people's sake. MacUpdate does not require any card info and offer free accounts and a free 10 day trial to use MacUpdate Desktop. MacUpdate Desktop does not use any authorization code or serial number, only your account login.

It's not blatant advertisement, but instead is an effort to lend credit to what the site does. I think he has a right to defend his site when it's legitimacy has been put in question, especially in the face of the accusations being thrown here that suggest it is distributing malware.