Is MacKeeper a legitimate program?

...

Again, appreciate the different and various ideas and perspectives here above.

So alright, .. with my having taken in what's been both said and pointed to, …

Where considering it or beyond—including what's been said or pointed to previously above within this thread / sub-forum about "MacKeeper", …

What's the general view / consensus, on .. the best way to "extricate" ones self from, "delete", "uninstall" .. this "program", … these days.

— I've brought up "Clean App" above with my general inquiry here with having seen it mentioned pointed to as one application perhaps useful toward this idea further above.

— Two posts above here, Steve HC19has pointed to an article having listed "AppCleaner" as a "Smart Uninstaller".

.. Any advice, opinions, experiences more anecdotal here, more specific or general, regarding either of these two resources. ?

From the article pointed to by Steve HC19above, ...

... MacKeeper had, for the longest time, made their soft extremely hard to remove, always leaving crumbs behind …. It took over 2 years [for them] to finally bend to the pressure and do something about [this idea] and provide an uninstaller.

— Is this an option any where near to reliable. ?

.. Again, just looking for the best approach here.

From the article pointed to by Steve HC19above, ...

... MacKeeper had, for the longest time, made their soft extremely hard to remove, always leaving crumbs behind …. It took over 2 years [for them] to finally bend to the pressure and do something about [this idea] and provide an uninstaller.

— Is this an option any where near to reliable. ?

I remember all this as if it were yesterday and I am certain that it didn't take them over 2 years to provide their first installer, which launched as soon as you put the app in the trash.

As I recall users objected to having to enter their admin password at that point in order for the uninstaller to work. They felt they were giving their password to ZeoBIT, when in fact all they were really doing was telling the OS that it was OK to de-install files that required and admin password to install.

It was also alleged that it left something behind which caused pop-up ads all the time, but I don't believe that was ever proven.

For several months prior to that uninstaller you had to call customer support to get instructions on what needed to be removed, followed by a listing on their support site of these files. Since the application itself was in a constant state of updates, they didn't always keep up with the names and locations of those files.

My impression is that everybody that was willing to call and ask for a credit to their card received it.

richard583a wrote:

What's the general view / consensus, on .. the best way to "extricate" ones self from, "delete", "uninstall" .. this "program", … these days.

Depends which version of MK you're dealing with. If it's MacKeeper 2012 or later, their uninstaller will do the job. Instructions are here:

http://help.mackeeper.zeobit.com/Manual/GettingStarted/UninstallingMacKeeper.htm l

If you're dealing with an older version of MK, you might want to visit my comprehensive instructions here.

Here is the official home page:

http://mackeeper.zeobit.com/

I do notrecommend installing it, even just to "try". Although it does more or less what it claims to do, the benefits are far outweighed by the negatives.

Yes you can get all the app's and protection provided by MacKeeper for free. Frankly I don't have the time or inclination to spend my time downloading, running, updating, etc etc if I wanted to do that I'd go back to PC.

I've run MacKeeper on all my Mac's since 2008 and it does the jobs I need perfectly, the latest version 3.0 is even better and so much cheaper. Security and ease of maintenance is key for me, MacKeeper gives me peace of mind and their Geek Online service is first class, quickly sorting out all sorts of Apple and third party software issues. I give it ★★★★★

Don't be folled by the fact that they agressively market themselves, I figure since their not in the App Store they have more to spend targeting potenetial Customers just like you, it neither proves or disproves anything about the quality of their offering.

My Bad it's just so good it just seems that long ago, yep bought it 20 December 2010.

Shill really that's your best work Kurt, think maybe you need a break to get some perspective 13 years is the forum must be leaving you a bit jaded mate.

Not quite a shill just a happy Customer!

<Image Edited by Host>

You're not fooling anyone here. You say you've been using MacKeeper since 2008. Not possible unless you have a time machine and traveled two years into the future to get a copy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacKeeper

The first beta-version of MacKeeper 0.8 was released on May 13, 2010, the second release on October 26, 2010.

Muahahahaha! 😁😁😁

Thanks Kurt, you've made my day!

I think I just peed in my pants a little

Brendan,

Thanks for posting your email address *in clear*. To me, it looks like a gmail address circa 1977

"His broad knowledge and exceptional expertise in the areas of website development and design, online marketing," yada yada yada ...

Hi

actually Im using mackeeper since 2011, and its working and doing fine. all in one, I am like brendanMcnelly said concerned with security and keeping my MBP smooth and fast. after 2 years I found it reliable even though apple OSx well protected unlike windows but still something inside people mind (obssession) to be safe rather than sorry, I give it 4/5 and recommend it.. as for the legitimate issue, I saw the revies in their site and most from known sources like Macworld with positive reviews from customers USED IT, regarding the rest of reviews if you search the net, you will find majority reviewes are negatives and few are positive. The negative because those users listened from others that considered as worth trust, again for me as normal consumer not involved too much with tech find this app suitable and convenient to use and as mentioned before the price cheap (pay as you like) try and see because you are the only one who can make judgement so try for 1$.

I wouldn't let it near my computer if they paid me. (And I suspect that's what they may be doing to get the positive reviews they are getting. Not very far fetched, as I've heard they did try to "pay off" someone here in the past.)

yea, I agree with you this might be right, but dont you think that if they took/ or did such positive reviewes from Macworld , brothersoft.com. such a legitimate sites and have respectful reputation among others (computers user, developer, etc.) that they will not law sue them (especially in todays world, one can sue anyone for a simplist case).

All I can say is I would take all those postive reveiws at Macworld with a huge grain of salt. And have a look at the WOT comments for brothersoft, and draw your own conclusion.

https://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/topfreedownloads.brothersoft.com?utm_source=a ddon&utm_content=popup-donuts

I am like brendanMcnelly said concerned with security and keeping my MBP smooth and fast.

Then MacKeeper is not for you.

Regarding the issue of keeping your machine running fast, have you actually done any benchmarks? If not, you probably just feel that MacKeeper makes your machine faster because it's been on there for so long. Perhaps you may have even had some corrupt caches that were causing a real problem, and that made MacKeeper's "cleaning" appear to work initially.

However, the kind of "cleaning" that MacKeeper, and other apps of its ilk, does is not something that is needed on a Mac. In fact, it can actually harm the performance of your machine, or if if gets a bit overzealous or suffers from an error, can damage your system.

For more information, see The myth of the dirty Mac.

As for security, MacKeeper offers only one real piece of security: the Avira anti-virus engine. You would do better, if you wanted to run that, to uninstall MacKeeper and install Avira itself, which is completely free.

You would be wise to do further reading on the issue of protecting yourself against malware. See my Mac Malware Guide.

Finally, note that the major printed Mac magazines have basically become shills for anyone who can pay them, since their business model of supplying a printed magazine that is a month outdated by the time it's mailed is beginning to fail in the face of always up-to-date online news sources. They were paid to review MacKeeper, and did so without any real scrutiny.

If you're interested in the opinions of people who have given it scrutiny, you should note that MacKeeper is currently the subject of a class-action lawsuit:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/lawsuit-challenges-mackeepers-clean-computer -claims-012114.html

MacKeeper, or the 911 Bundle as it was sold by in the App Store has been pulled for good reason. Apple doesn't remove titles without cause.

The "positive" review in Macworld was shortly after MacKeeper's release. Read the comments under the review to see what people think of Macworld's article. It's not glowing.

As WZZZ noted, Zeobit (who no longer supposedly own MacKeeper) has been well known and proven to pay people to post positive reviews. Usually in the form of a free copy of the software.

The common giveaway to these paid positive reviews is the same thing you just saw here. A new user to these forums just happened to run across a topic on MacKeeper, and just happened to make their very first post a puppies and rainbows report of how wonderful the software is.

To see this in full action, go to MacUpdate and read through as much of 498 pages of comments as you want. Find any positive review and click on the person's screen name. Try and find any such person who has posted more than three times on MacUpdate's site that is about anything than how wonderful MacKeeper is.

This recent court case is illuminating:

http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/01/21/64695.htm Quoted below

"CHICAGO (CN) - A class action claims ZeoBIT defrauds customers by saying its MacKeeper software can spot performance problems on Mac computers, but labels every computer as "at risk" and in need of repair.

Lead plaintiff Gregory Ward sued ZeoBIT, a California LLC, in Cook County Chancery Court.

"ZeoBIT develops software that it claims will increase the speed, performance, and stability of a consumer's Macintosh personal computer by removing harmful errors, and eliminating privacy and security threats," the complaint states.

"Unfortunately, as described more fully herein, ZeoBIT uses a common deceptive scheme to trick consumers into purchasing its MacKeeper software, which ultimately fails to deliver the utility ZeoBIT promises."

For more about ‘astruturfing’ (writing phoney product reviews for money) see here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing

and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24299742