Q: What is Mac Keeper and is it safe?

I understand your concerns.  I, too, dislike companies that practice that sort of "propaganda."  I can assure you, though, that I haven't received any compensation from them, and that I don't work for them either.

Like I said before, my only point is that MacKeeper is not malware.  I also use other free tools.  I was looking stuff up online about MacKeeper's antivirus performance and this discussion was one of the top search results.  This is precisely why I replied to it, even though it's an old one.  I felt that the statements made by some that it is "MALWARE" were misleading and untruthful.

It is my personal opinion, to which I'm clearly entitled, that MacKeeper can be a useful tool, if one finds it so and can afford it.  As far as I'm concerned, I haven't even bothered getting the newer version simply because it's not worth the money to me.  But I do use the older one sometimes.

Well, thanks for the tip, MadMacs0 (cool ID, btw).  I wasn't aware of that. I use it sometimes to figure out what free antivirus to snatch.  I'll keep that in mind from now on.  As for their rating of MacKeeper's antivirus, I treated it as informative - I use the free Symantec that I get from school.

After helping so many people to fix problems on their Mac by simply uninstalling MacKeeper, I will stick by my opinion of it that is crapware. The only thing it is good for is lining Zeobit's pockets with gold. I strongly recommend against installing MacKeeper.

Allan

PS - Did they take money to test certain products, or to rig test results? Or both?

Symantec is another piece os software that I rank right next to MacKeeper in it's ability to cause problems on Macs. I will need even allow anything from Symantecs into my house never mind on my computer.

Allan

I've heard stories about that, but I've never had issues uninstalling it.  It has its own uninstaller, but I never checked beyond 'Library/Application Support'...  Does it leave a lot of crap behind?

While I'm sure you have good reasons to say this, I've never had issues with it.  My only beef with Symantec is that it requires Java in order to install and, subsequently, update.  That's the stupidest thing ever, considering that I try to stay as far away from Java as possible.  Is there a similar free tool that you'd recommend?  Sophos has had its share of "oops, I did it again," at least at corporate level, and all the other brands haven't been around on the Mac market for too long...

Personally I don't install any AV software at all.

I suggest you read http://www.thesafemac.com/mmg/

Allan

Mihai S. wrote:

 

PS - Did they take money to test certain products, or to rig test results? Or both?

I wanted to include this in my first response, but it took me awhile to find it again.

AV-Comparatives.org, bullying, censorship and financial deals with Anti Virus vendors

I'll let you judge for yourself.

Remove it and all linked code in your libraries. It is the king of malware programs. Stay your distance. Do not use. Danger WIll Robinson, Danger, Danger!!! (Waving hands wildly to get everyones attention).

It's not uncommon for new folks to go for Mackeeper, it does look nifty and they do advertise everywhere and mac is in the name, but darned if they are not the devil in the details. Do not use.

You really should read post at bottom of thread by H. Lamar.

It appear there is another dissatified Mac Keeper user who has joined the thread.

Allan

I saw Lamar's post (https://discussions.apple.com/message/21559450#21559450), but I won't argue with him.  It would be like arguing about the Bible - it never ends and we'll both find our own arguments to be more truthful.  Many apparently mistake poorly engineered software for malware.

As for your earlier post about not using an antivirus, I dual-boot between Mac and Windows and that wouldn't be recommended no matter what, at least as far as I'm concerned.  Thank you for the link though; it is very informative.

Message was edited by: Mihai S.

Of course if you boot to Windows you need AV software then.

Since I do absolutely no Microsoft software on my Macs, I don't have that problem.

Allan

Understandably so.