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Skype: Automatic Installation Of Crapware Called EasyBits

Microsoft O’ Microsoft, what have you done. Skype was almost perfect before the merger. A few days back, Users were having trouble signing in and now it seems that it’s automatically installing crapware called EasyBits Go without permission. It’s basically a Malware but surprisingly, it comes out clean in anti-virus apps. Skype has also acknowledged this situation but haven’t released the official statement yet. Anyways, here’s how to remove EasyBits (source)

  • In Skype, select menu option Tools | Options | Advanced, and un-check Automatically Start Extras. Click Save.
  • Shut down Skype.
  • Bring up Task Manager. If the EasyBits GO dialog is still visible, EasyBitsGO.exe is probably running. Kill it. The box will vanish. (Kill the process even if you’ve already closed the dialog.)
  • Make sure the SkypePM.exe process is not running. If it is, kill it.
  • Go to the Add or Remove Programs applet and uninstall EasyBits GO. It uninstalls almost instantly, which suggests that nothing is actually being uninstalled. This was the case as best I could tell.
  • Find the folder tree at Documents and Settings/All Users/Application Data/Easybits GO/ and delete it.
  • Go to the Application Data folder tree under the user that was active when the damned thing installed, and find the go folder. (It contains some kind of log file.) Delete it.
  • Go to the Windows/Prefetch directory and look for the file EASYBITSGO.EXE-364DAFD6.pf and delete it.
  • Search for and delete all instances of ezPMUtils.dll. They may be in different locations depending on your version of Windows.
  • If you’re comfortable editing the Registry, get rid of the keys at Software/EasyBits as shown in the screenshot above.
  • Reboot. Theoretically that should do it, but if Skype could push this thing down to countless users without their knowledge once, it could do so again.
  • After rebooting, I think it might make sense to update your virus scanner signature database and do a full scan on your system.

Solution #2 (almost the same) (source)

  • Disable and remove 3rd party access to the easybitgo.exe file in Skype via Options > Advanced > Advanced Settings > Manage other programs’ access to Skype
  • Remove the Easybits Go program via the Install/Uninstall panel under your system’s control panel
  • Exit Skype and make sure the Skype.exe is not running in the list of running processes (via Task Manager). Also temporarily disable Skype from starting automatically when Windows starts.
  • Then restart your computer since the program will still be is use by the system.
  • Once restarted, go to [Drive Letter]:\ProgramData or [Drive Letter]:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data and permanently delete theEasybits GO folder.
  • Remove whatever shortcuts it may have placed in the start menu and desktop.
  • If you are confident enough to dig around in your registry, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software and delete the entire EasyBits folder (thanks Christopher)
  • Go to the Windows\Prefetch directory and look for the file EASYBITSGO.EXE-364DAFD6.pf and delete it. Also do a search for ezPMUtils.dll and delete them all.
  • If you are on Windows 7, delete the go folder in this directory – Users > [YOUR USERNAME] >AppData > Roaming


Chief Editor of A New Morning, love tech related software, online services and of course gaming. Feel free to visit this blog for daily updates and news.

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