It's disgusting - patently deceitful, and arguably dubious, even malicious - but I think it also highlights just how popular and successful Open Office is that it has become a target for such machinations. It then proceeds to prompt for agreement to the software license for several other packages (which can be skipped), and the final 'progress' dialogue (which downloads and installs these packages without further ado) continuing to identify itself as "Open Office Installer". The first dialogue of this particular installer prompts you to accept a license agreement (that cannot be skipped) for the installation of 'Rocket Browser' - this dialogue deliberately obfuscates its purpose (the text actually identifying the installation as something other than OO is tiny, and all other identifying markers simply state "Open Office Installer"). at least until halfway through the litany of license agreements when my mental alarms started going off. I never see the sponsored ads in Google on my own computer, so while installing this on a friend's personal machine (without an ad-blocker), a momentary lapse in concentration saw me finally fall for this today. DON'T TOUCH THESE!! The wary should be alerted by the language and the URL structure, but we can all make mistakes. No Trials" (ee-download-now_dotcom), "Apache OpenOffice Free - Safe & Easy Install" (openoffice.soft-now_dotcom), and "Open Office 2014 Download" (ee-office_dotorg). Sponsored links include "Apache OpenOffice Free - Full Version. I would like to confirm for fellow users (and anyone concerned) that the sponsored links on Google results pages lead to unofficial installers that package OO with a large amount of dubious software. I am only posting here as creating a duplicate/related topic elsewhere on the forum doesn't seem. Obviously I'm not about to second guess Norton. I very much would like to install the newest version on this new 8.1 computer, but Norton says no. There might be a way to do it without the installer, but I don't know how. I actually tried to install the older version from a flash drive on the computer with the newer version, but it wouldn't install without an OO installer. I actually took a chance on downloading the program, because I thought I could save it instead of run it and hopefully have Malwarebytes check it before installing it-if that is possible. Either I am being fooled by the official site, or Norton is full of crap. I will not update to the new version on the computer that has the 4.0-if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I tried everything that was advised to fix it and nothing worked. The newer version (4.1) works fine on a different computer except that the spellchecker does not work. I have Open Office on two other computers and am reasonably happy with it-especially the older 4.0. It did the job, but just for good measure I tossed the Apache Open Office. Again, fortunately, I was advised to get Malwarebytes to get rid of that crap. However, the hijackers managed to inflict themselves on my browsers. Fortunately, I didn't complete the installation. I had previously downloaded it from the same site about two weeks ago and it came complete with "Rocket Search" and "Speedial". I just did () try to download Open Office from the "official site" and Norton shut it down. If you have a way to check the download history and can find the exact address the download came from, it can be reported to go on a blacklist. Or, if the system is already compromised from some other source, it may hijack the browser or the search page to lead you to the wrong site. Somehow, the scam sites manage to appear at the top of a web search in some situations, and it fools lots of people. My guess is that you did a web search for open office and clicked on the top hit. These sites have nothing to do with OO the download absolutely did not come from the official OO site. These sites are very slick-some are more professional-looking than the official OO site-and they fool a lot of people, even people who should know to be more careful. The problem is that there are lots of scam sites that look official, and will install OO, but they are in fact scam sites which install all kinds of nasty malware along with OO. Sorry to hear of this problem-it's really, really awful.
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