UTorrent, should I be concerned?

[otherguy5]

I recently downloaded uTorrent (which I now deleted) because it changed a bunch of my search engine settings to Yahoo.

Does anybody have any experience with uTorrent? Should I be concerned of hidden Malware or any other hidden programs running in the background? And is there a way to tell if this is the case? I am so paranoid now that I am considering reinstalling the OS.

 

[tinca]

that is odd, it never done anything like that to me.

I recommend Transmission for a mac torrent client.

 

[MacUser2525]

Should I be concerned of hidden Malware or any other hidden programs running in the background? And is there a way to tell if this is the case? I am so paranoid now that I am considering reinstalling the OS.

The only way that will work is if you go scorched earth on the new install, by that I mean nothing copied over from old. That is the only way to be certain that nothing is infected as seems to be your concern, MalwareBytes for Mac or other similar programs can be downloaded to run and check for problems.

 

[robo456]

You probably just 'clicked thru' the installation too fast. A lot of programs now-a-days, PC or mac side, have a "Make (blah-blah) my default home page" or "Make (blah-blah) my default search engine."

If you are really worried about it, like MU said, just download MalwareBytes (from them, not a 3rd party) at https://www.malwarebytes.org/mac-download/ . BUT! same with everything else... go SLOW thru the install. I'm not sure on the mac side, but on the PC side, it'll try to have you install a 'free trial' of the Pro version. Uncheck that. Just the standard version is what you want to run now.

On a side note, I don't run torrents any more, but like Tinca recommended, I used Transmission on the mac side, and uTorrent on the PC side...

--rob

 

[janitor3]

I use Transmission for downloading torrents, never had problems.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Along with app installers that try to tack on crap like that, some shareware sites package the apps in their own installers which can lead to what robo456 describes.

Just keep your eye out for those pesky pre-checked checkboxes.

 

[vkd]

Use AppZapper to uninstall the app, won't be anything serious from uTorrent I say from experience.