Microsoft Begins Classifying Ask Toolbar As Malware (Updated)

As if needing Java isn’t bad enough, it’s frustrated users for so long because every single freaking update tries to install Ask toolbar on your PC. It’s a nuisance, and if there’s a single person on our Earth that actually wants it, I’d be hugely surprised. Well, it seems that Microsoft agrees, as it’s begun treating the Ask toolbar as malware.

This comes less than a month after Microsoft added search protection to its malware detection. Effectively, any piece of software that tries to hijack your search settings will be considered malicious by Windows Defender or Security Essentials.

To test this out, I decided to do the unthinkable: I installed the Ask toolbar on purpose. Well, I tried to. With no obvious interception, the installer I used from the official source simply died after I tried to install it – still a great result.

Good riddance, Ask toolbar.

3:50PM EST Addendum: Ask reached out to us to highlight a couple of important points:

• The current version of the Ask Toolbar is not considered malware by Microsoft and will not be banned. The cited reference in Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center is specific to an outdated version of the Ask toolbar that impacts less than 1 percent of users
• Microsoft has updated its post accordingly “The latest version of this application is not detected by our objective criteria, and is not considered unwanted software.”
• The tiny fraction of outdated toolbars flagged were due to the search protection feature, which became against Microsoft policy as of June 1. To clarify, this feature does not block users from updating their own settings. It only triggers a screen to confirm a settings change when  initiated by a third party.
• The current Ask toolbar does not include search protection and is compliant with Microsoft’s recently updated policies.

In addition, Microsoft has said: “Microsoft is in the process of updating the Microsoft Malware Protection Center to indicate that the detected versions are out of date. The latest Ask toolbar is compliant with Microsoft’s objective criteria for third party software”