Finallyfast.com or drain your wallet dotcom

You've all heard the commercials, they tell you it will restore your PC to like new condition (well, years of porn and Sarah Palin pictures will stress the hardware). I decided to find out (yes, Dain did a little investigative reporting on his own).

I pulled a hulk off my pile in storage, an old Dell 4600C vintage 2003. Needed a power supply. Got one from Ebay under $30 shipped. Put a P4 3.0 and 2GB of ram in it (thanks Ramhut)and a 320GB HD from a Velociraptor conversion (geek-talk). Installed a FRESH licensed copy of WIN XP Pro. Downloaded ALL of the updates and Service Packs from Microsoft. Installed Microsoft Security Essentials for protection, CCleaner, IoBit Advanced System Care, and the amazing AML Free Registry Cleaner (http://www.amltools.com/).

After everything was checked and I certified NO errors of any kind on the computer I went to finallyfast.com.

Finally Fast is owned by Ascentive LLC. located in Philadelphia, PA. They sell software like this:



and this






I downloaded their package, installed it, and FOUR new icons appeared on my desktop, two were links to Ascentive software sites to buy more of their software. The scan took about one minute (remember, other than the programs I listed nothing is installed, this is a virgin system).

But their software claimed I has 28 registry errors and 8 file 'shortcuts' missing after their free scan.

And as soon as the sun will comes up tomorrow, when you click 'the fix it button', the web pages open like a waterfall and pop ups start demanding you PAY THEM RIGHT FUCKING NOW to fix your computer or fire and brimstone will rain down on your hard drive.


I think 8 web pages and 5 pop ups demanding payment clogged my screen before I hit alt F4 and ended the misery. I uninstalled it, and sat down to write this review. The moral of the story is this.

The software they sell doesn't do ANYTHING better than the free software I listed. As a matter of fact, I think it is malware rather than helpware. Maybe if your computer is so screwed and you are so helpless you think parting with $29.95 is worth it, yup, there is an ass for every seat. And if they have their way, by the time you are done, they will have sold you every piece of software they have to sell and slow your system down so much you'll think they poured molasses in it.


If you have to pay to have the your system 'fixed' with all of the GREAT free software available out there, buy a new system.

DISCLAIMER, this opinion is NOT the opinion of DU,LLC but MY opinion as a professional, BUYER BEWARE!!!

Please: whatever you do, DO NOT put that hulk back on your network until you low-level format the hard drive and reinstall everything from scratch.

What I figure: The Ascentive software you pay for works as advertised. If you click the "free system check" button, Ascentive will load down your computer something fierce with all sorts of malware and crap. The thirty-dollar package will clean it all off for you.

Yes, you read correctly: I believe the purpose of Ascentive's for-sale software is to correct all the problems Ascentive's freeware created in the first place.

At the sign shop I used to work at, we had a laminating crew consisting of two early-twentysomething females with a LOT of friends. When they weren't laminating, the boss let them surf MySpace. Oops...one of 'em clicked on the Ascentive "your system is full of viruses!" pop-up button before I could stop her, and wound up loading about five thousand viruses on the machine. We sent that machine to one of Trevor's friends to be cleaned out, and the two airheads attempted to use MySpace on the machine that ran my printers! (Right after they tried that, I put MySpace in a site blocker so they couldn't. If you're going to fuck up a computer, PLEASE don't fuck up the most important one in the whole building!

I hate throwing old systems away. I have a storage facility with hulks and parts, and this was perfect for this build. Yanking out the drive and replacing it with an 80GB to keep as another backup for work. Or maybe I'll put Vista on it and give it away to some deserving soul....

Wow. You're evil.

:D

I had trouble recently getting to my e-mail inbox or any other secure page. Basically, my Internet Explorer smells a rat and tightens up. I've had this once before, so I knew what to do. I opened C:\windows\tmp and there's a folder that's not supposed to be there. I opened it to find a link to a web site selling the kind of software you described. Delete, problem solved.

Think about it. They give you the problems they claim to fix, as subtly as a business card for a glass repair shop tied to a rock thrown through your window.

Thank you for taking the time to put them to the test and share the results.

Never an issue with shit like this.

NEVER.

:think:


90% of the people here use Windows and it should not be held against them....

If enough people stop putting up with the absolute shit M$ puts out, they'll have to adapt or die.

I got lucky and found LINUX in about '95.....

OSX is a UNIX work alike and it can run about 80% of the stuff windoze can.....'Parallels' can handle the rest.

But you have to spring for Mac hardware.....some won't, and I cannot blame them for not wanting to do that, either.

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or my office suite or my authoring tools or my complers or my anything else remotely having to do with computer software for about 15 years.

Never lost ONE HOUR to the blue screen of death or upgrade breakdowns.

NEVER.

Fruit flies indeed.

Better that than the intellectually lazy and the consumer too dull to try something new, who'd rather just fork over the M$ tax to play the latest games.

Be sure to give Bill my regards the next time you have to back out of an upgrade because it breaks all your shit.

No spyware, no adware, no popups, just good clean COMplaying. Billy boy gates has got his last dollar out of me.

Don't fear the penguin!!!

:hi:

not just fun but no hassle. I have none of the anti-anythings and have had no problems with any of the used to have hassles I had with my winblows machines.
I'm the type who likes to be on the cutting edge always no matter what so I'm using ubuntu 10.04 beta 2, again with no hassles. This new ubuntu is going to make microShit stand up and start paying attention or loose out is all I know for sure. I'm eagerly waiting for the final release on the 29th of this month cause with it I plan to settle in and quit playing with all the other distros.

One: the Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 2 live CD doesn't recognize any of my hard drives when using it in testing mode ("Try Ubuntu 10.04 without making any changes to your computer"), but Ubuntu 9.x does see them, and even mounts them in read/write mode.

Is this a feature in 10.04 live CD mode, a missing feature, or an outright bug?

Two: "This new ubuntu is going to make micro$hit (ed.: fixed) stand up and start paying attention or loose out is all I know for sure." I keep hearing this, but without full DirectX support, that doesn't seem possible. Does 10.04 play nicely with DirectX via WINE now, to the point I can install and run- oh, say "Mirror'sEdgeDeadSpaceCrysisOblivionSims3Spore"- without issues?

I'm going to spring for Win7 probably later today, but I intend to do a dual boot with Ubuntu 10.04, and maybe migrate fully if I can game on it. How possible is that- will I still have to refer to the WineAppDB site for every Windows app I want to run?

(I've already used Ubuntu for quite a while, but gaming has ever been an issue- "issue", hah, more like a subscription.)

and thats as far as I got. I deleted the partitions I had the previous version on, 9.10, to free up space for 10.04 and then installed it and it's not had one problem finding anything. Even back to alpha 1 its found all my hardware. I say install it and give it a try. 10.04 rocks and I mean that. I'm at 10 seconds to boot right now. About 2 or three to shut down. You can install it several different ways and you can back out at any point up to a point so you can't really mess up. This is an old dell i bought in dec of '00 3 gig processor with 2 gig ram and its way faster at everything than it used to be with my xp that I had hacked to speed it up. Ubuntu just works. for that matter so does mint.

I'm using Ubuntu in the "boot from a live CD and make no changes" mode. I don't want to install it yet. What I'm asking is why Ubuntu 9.04 (I think that's the version I'm using) can see my hard drives from a live CD "change nothing on your computer" mode, but 10.04 beta 1 and 2 cannot. They don't even list my active hard drives when running in LiveCD mode.

I will install Ubuntu on my hard drive again when I get Win7 so I can dual boot (and I'm sure Ubuntu will mount all my drives properly once it's installed), but until then, I'm just curious why 9.04 can see my hard drives and 10.x cannot when running from a live CD.

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when I got tired of fixing everybody's machines for nothing. Well, except for a tiny partition for when I have to work from home. I'm still loving Fedora 12.

Monday I had to put XP back on a partition in my usual box because I got a new 1TB drive. I spent a day and a half battling that sumbitch to a draw, but I got my taxes done. (The lady who does 'em usually is going back to school this year, so I was on my own.)

I'm just not used to flinging an OS on a box and not having everything to work the first time (including my USB wireless dongle). You think my language is bad on DU, you should have been a mouse in the corner. It takes a half-hour to set Fedora up with 100% of it working the first time.

Thank heaven I'm through with Windoze for another year.

And my experience with both goes back to the days of DOS.

Sure the Macs cost more.

The better PC notebooks (Tecra, ThinkPad) cost as much as or more than Macs.

Mainstream consumer PC notebooks are pieces of shit, even if you treat them gently.

They are made poorly and won't last and that's why executives and people who depend on them don't buy them, they buy the high end ones because they'll last.

Either should have extended warranties because shit happens, even to good equipment.

On the OS side, forget about it.

I manage my GF's and my parents' and other friends' PCs when shit happens and it makes me crazy.

You get what you pay for and, over time, replacing PCs seems wasteful.

And if your time is worth anything, PCs are more expensive for all the virus/spyware/OS management tasks they require.

That's my opinion. I just can't deal with Microsoft or crappy PCs, but I do use Windows on a Toshiba Tecra when I need to.

Check your PM

Well, the hair, it's a little shorter.

And that was before my tats.

Especially a laptop (goes for PCs too). They just don't work as gaming devices.

Have you heard about the patent Jobs et al got for "an" OS? Embedded advertising that actually disables the app you're using until you participate in the ad. Actively participate.

I imagine something like "you may continue using your copy of 'Maya Unlimited' after you click 'okay' to acknowledge you have viewed this advertising for 'Netflix'. Press 'okay' to continue now."

:puke:

These damned viruses and so forth are designed around that assumption (and a true assumption) that most people will believe the pop up window that says they need to download a product.

I hadn't heard about that other thing, the patent.

If something asked me to actively participate in an ad, if an ad even shows up, I don't use that service or visit that website.

I stopped going to Huffington Post and I avoid Yahoo, though I have Yahoo mail accounts.

And then there's the Facebook and MySpace problems with security and privacy, sigh.

But I give gamers, home box builders, and Linux users a pass on the broadbrush generalizations I make regarding PC vs Mac.

:thumbsup:

I get LOTS of gammer computers to 'fix', just did one. So badly contaminated I wound up formatting the drive and re-installing Vista because it took less time to do than cleaning up his sewer. And it was a fairly recent Dell XPS megabucks machine.

PS

I was rude not to also say hello my friend.......


:hug:

...thus the term, "usually".

Another thing I won't do, get in an argument with a gamer over PC v Mac.

Just not worth it, waaaay beyond my experience set, so I give 'em a pass. :P

:hi:

I rebuilt an older one piece, whatever they are called. A gig of ram, Mac cd burner, 80Gig hard drive, I think it's 15", OS something. Bored me, not much you can put on it. BUT, a 7 year old PC like that Dell I built, there are LOTS of games and apps that sucker will run. Office 2007, Corel, LOTS of on-line games and even some newer single player games (no not Crysis).

hitler.

"Have you heard about the patent Jobs et al got for "an" OS? Embedded advertising that actually disables the app you're using until you participate in the ad. "Actively' participate."

Step away from the bong for a minute. The technology calls for embedding ads in the startup screens of apps. You're trying to turn it into something far more sinister with your "actually disables your app...until you participate" crap. I don't see how it's much different than the splash screens of many of the FREE games I have today. FREE. IOW, I didn't pay for them. But someone has to. Your FREE game won't "actually be disabled," you'll just have to click through a splash screen ad. Don't like it? Buy a full version. It's the way it works. Twitter is about to launch ads on your Tweets. Does anyone think they were planning on giving away the service for FREE forever? Same model for app developers. They can embed revenue-producing ads in their apps, paid for through the eyeball-time of the people who download their game for FREE. The internet is a wonderful thing, but as the old saying goes, ain't no free.

So quite over-hyping the reality here; when you press any button on your app, you're "actively participating." That is just the language in the patent referring to how one interacts with the GUI. Your panties are in a twist for nothing.

.

But I cannot get him to let me clean it up thoroughly. Sometimes, he will let me remove a few of the multitude of disk and registry checkers (last time I looked he had five of those), anti-virus programs (BOTH Norton AND McAfee), (three) speed boosters and other crap he has installed (four toolbars on his browser?). What really needs to happen is to wipe the drives and start fresh, but he has managed to disable the CD burner, has not backed up anything for years, and does not use the external backup drive we gave him - and he won't let me set it up for him.

No wonder his computer takes 15 minutes to boot and five minutes to change a web page - while on broadband. <sigh>

I agree (sigh).

Sure, some may be good programs, but he does not need all of them. And it is hard to explain this to a profoundly deaf man.

that would make, you know, the computer faster. Along with the crapware that he has on it. CCleaner will take most of them off, but other than that, it's just a major cleanup job that your dad's computer needs to clean up.

I recommend Microsoft Security Essentials to replace both hogs, and it does the job very nicely. I have not had any problems with my 7 desktop for a long time.

I do recommend Linux to anyone who'll listen, but most of the time we work with M$ and Macs.

Like I said - the best thing would be to wipe the whole thing out and start fresh. If I could spend a week downstate with him, I would do that.

He fought tooth and nail to keep his 286 going and still complains about having to use Windows. He went straight from DOS 5 to Windows 98, then to Windows XP when the 98 desktop died. Every time, he says, "This will be the last operating system I learn!" At 87, he is still doing OK so I doubt that is true - and hope it is not.

Maybe I will get him a new computer next Christmas with Windows 7 on it and an administrator account that he does not have the password for. Put him into a user account that does not have privileges so he can't install stuff. But he would pitch a fit!

He would probably have liked going direct from DOS to Linux, but Linux was not really ready for most people at the point his 286 finally died.

I just went to Windows 7 - my XP desktop quit working last week and I had the local shop put together a nice basic machine. It turns out that my old one's problems were mostly a dying harddrive, not even the boot drive. I've used Testdisk to get just about everything back from the sick drive, and all my important data that was on it. You know you have problems when the Western Digital diagnostics quit without completing testing and tell you it is seriously bad. Since the data seems to be OK, I suspect maybe the controller card is bad, not the discs themselves.

Windows 7 is great - but I have not loaded the Security Essentials. I'll get that as soon as I finish off-loading the data I recovered - that has a little over a half hour remaining. Too much computer stuff in the last week - backing up, rescuing, setting up new, etal.

My mother refuses to let me reformat her aging, sloooow computer (still infested with traces of AOL's dial-up programs even though she got DSL several years ago), so I just keep it limping along with generous applications of CCleaner and IObit defrag, and she keeps cussing and complaining. :argh:

ROGUE.ASCENTIVE in the registry, a file in local settings/temp, and in the system restore volume.

MAlware, plain and simple. What scumbags.


Rogue.Ascentive

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date spotted:
First seen on 2009-08-31.
Last seen on 2010-04-14.

Detection statistics:
This object is 0.04% of all objects detected.
1,175,748 instances detected worldwide.

You might consider selling your review to them :)

This sounds like an actually illegal operation that needs to be shut down. Protection racket, indeed.

for fixing registry entries.

I've always been leery of Finally Fast.

By the way, if you want to speed up your Internet connection, a .bat file is a great way to do it.


For Windows XP:
For Firefox you just type into Notepad (without the quotes) "Start /High c:\PROGRA~1\MOZILL~1\firefox.exe"

Put the website address that you want it to to automatically open to at the end like "Start /High c:\PROGRA~1\MOZILL~1\firefox.exe http://my.yahoo.com/"

Save it to your desktop as a .bat file after clicking on All Files, you can name it whatever you want. I use Firefox.bat.

For Vista:
Start /High c:\PROGRA~2\MOZILL~1\firefox.exe

For Windows 7:

Start /High c:\PROGRA~2\MOZILL~1\firefox.exe

Click on the .bat file to start Firefox instead of the Firefox shortcut.

You can also set Firefox to high priority in your Task Manager before you start it each time but I think this is easier.

Free, simple and it doesn't screw things up. Been using it for years. I swear by it.

why does the .bat file make things faster?

for Firefox to high. You can do the same thing each time you want to start Firefox by changing it's priority in your Task manager. This just makes it easier.

The priority determines the resources given to a particular program is how I understand it. By setting it to high for Firefox the system recognizes you want resources allocated to Firefox first.

:P

Oh balls, it didn't run:

so they simply repackaged it, LOLOLOL.


Ascentive PC SpeedScan Pro
We did have a short review of PC SpeedScan here and many user comments and reviews. Very colorful and negative user comments about the software I should add. Unfortunately, we were forced to remove the review and the comments for a variety of reasons.

Apparently, Ascentive did not like the comments and we received a few nasty-grams from their lawyers. The FTC is releasing new rules about user comments and reviews that make us liable for your comments. Go figure. A lot of legal jargon but it seems that freedom of speech on the Internet is slowly coming to an end.


http://www.whatsabyte.com/P1/speedscan.htm


http://ascentive.pissedconsumer.com/pc-speedscan-pro-20080811131136.html
I just purchased this software for my computer, and to my surprise, it had a virus in it


During my second trial of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (I’ve found myself using this on some really tough customer PC infections, lately), I found that I still had 8-10 traces of their “Rogue.AscentivePerformance” and a single reference to “Rogue.Installer”. Of course, MBAM ($24.95 for a lifetime license) removed all of them.

So, after going into “Add and Remove Programs” and uninstalling PC SpeedScan Pro, you just need to run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to remove all traces that the Ascentive software leaves behind.

http://www.angelopc.com/2009/07/03/how-to-remove-ascentive-pc-speedscan-pro-update/

I'm going to take a look at IoBit Advanced System Care, and AML Registry Cleaner, those are ones I hadn't heard of before.

The older Advanced Windows Care ran simpler and easier and the free version did things that the new one only does in the paid for version.

I still think the BEST anti-everything software made is Xoftspyse by Pareto logic, but it is pay only. They have a version for secure thumb drives I use at work for bombing PC's that get hit with the rogue anti-virus program.

What a world. :) Thanks for the de-tech-tive work.

seriously it's not too hard to figure it out, if you actually go and pay for things like this then you are beyond help.

access to their entire drive AND the registry. Who says the data (passwords and all) couldn't very, very easily be lifted and carried off to Dog-knows-where. If big banks and government institutions can't protect customer private data, who's guaranteeing that these folks can? And who TF are they anyway?

My data is my data. First line of protection starts at the keyboard and mouse.

I'm always on the lookout for good freeware, and have never heard of AML.

IMO, Finallyfast's cheesy commercials just scream SCAM, especially when they use Macs in their demonstration of sloooow, Finallyfast malware-infested PCs.

The BBB is 'updating' their rating, which usually means they have so many complaints they'd rather just ignore them.

do your own research but I recommend:

Avira Free Anti-virus (or AVG-free both are good)
Malwarebytes
Spybot Search and Destroy
CC Cleaner
A-squared trojan removal

Works for me, do a few mins of research can save you time, and money, and headaches later. ;)

None of the apps I use (all on your list, by the way) seem capable of removing it. It's just a tracking cookie, and I know where it came from (and it seems benign), but the AVG popup warning me about it every time I open Firefox is getting a little irritating.

go directly to the opt-out page: http://www.safecount.net/optout.php

Especially about AML registry-checker -- definitely be using that.

Thanks!

:yourock:

Just from the commercial alone. Horrid and scabby on a scale that even local used car lots would be ashamed of. The lack of care and quality in their public face just announces that they can not be trusted, as does their saturation level air time spamming.
Breaking it down like this is a public service and I thank you for posting this.

It was a lot of work for you, but what a nice public service to warn people about these scammers.

(turns pink from blushing)

Actually, I checked with Skinner a while back, and I am thinking about 'donating' some of my extra PC's to DU'ers who desperately need one. He ok'd it, I just have to formulate a way to do it fairly.

:hide:
































































































I am joking of course.

Don

:rofl: :yourock:

I've had Macs for 20 years and never had one problem with viruses. Between work and home I have had up to 5 Macs at one time, but never once did I have a problem with viruses. And my Mac is completely 'condomless' because it has no protection. Macs cost more than PCs, but IMO, they are easier to maintain, they are more intuitive, and they don't get viruses. I used to work with a PC, but found I spent all of my time reinventing the wheel. To install software took up to 30 steps. Installing software on a Mac took one step (insert disc and click on icon (ok, two steps)). The very large company I worked for dumped all their PCs and went to a Mac only environment. Because Macs are so much easier to use and more efficient, the technical support department was reduced from 12 to 3 people.

I still remember my PC working days when I would have to type in 20-30 letter commands just to get it to do something. And if you missed one letter or symbol you had to start over. PCs = Pieces of Crap (IMO) Hell, even Bill Gate's kid reportedly uses a Mac, and when I last heard he wanted an iPhone.

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Only $89 to clean out my PC and make it faster, well worth the bargain considering I've been renting this PC from Rent-A-Center for $15/wk for the past 5 years and it's almost paid off WOOHOO!



















































:sarcasm:

Or how about the $29.95 a week for 52 weeks if you have a checking account laptop..................the same laptop you can buy for $349 at Best Buy................


http://www.gcf4all.com/laptops.html

:puke:

Microsoft-ish type company creates supervirus so they can sell supervirus-killing software?

I've seen their commercials before and what they're doing is a scam.

Malwarebytes doesn't lie. I'd reinstall this shit again to see what other anti-malware software picks this crap up.