Is RealPlayer a Trojan or Trojan-like?

27Thousand

I downloaded RealPlayer from its website, then ran it through Jotti's Malware Scan, which is an online scan using 21 anti-viruses (including Kaspersky, NOD32, and AVG). http://virusscan.jotti.org/en Although all the other anti-viruses said it was okay, the program VBA32 said that it's "Win32.Trojan.Downloader (http://...)". Is RealPlayer intrusive or like a Trojan, or should things be okay? I've heard it takes up resources, but then I think I've heard people say the same thing about every Windows application.

Maroc

What kind of website is it ?

27Thousand

I got the RealPlayer download from the official website, http://www.real.com/realplayer. Then for the online scan I went to http://virusscan.jotti.org/en, and all you do is click "Browse" (for a file from your computer) then "Submit". The site runs any file under 15MB through 21 anti-virus programs, including AVG, Kaspersky, bitdefender, ClamAV, NOD32, etc. So I don't know if it was just a false alarm because one of the 21 said it was a Trojan, or if that site used heuristics and found RealPlayer to be intrusive, or what. I don't know if that answered your question?

27Thousand

The reason I'm wondering is when I looked up RealPlayer at Wikipedia, it had a specific Criticisms of RealPlayer section. It said that critics say its intrusive and changes registry settings without letting the owner know what's going on. Then it has a quote from a spokesman from RealPlayer saying that the company says it's not a bad program regardless. So when that one anti-virus out of the 21 said Trojan, I wondered if that AV used heuristics settings and if RealPlayer would be bad enough to set something like that off?

So I downloaded/installed the program Real Alternative. A lot of these alternative programs are good if you want the general of what a program does, but often leave out some specifics. I found Real Alternative leaves out some specifics that I had with RealPlayer on another computer. The thing is I just bought a new laptop, which I've had for a week. So you'd imagine that I'd want to be careful what I put on it since it's new. Is there a way to track what RealPlayer does to registry and other things, so I can change it back if needed?

turbo

Probably your best bet is to set a system restore point before installing any new program that may make changes without your permission.

27Thousand

I think it's a excellent idea to make registry backups from regedit, System Restore Points, and Windows backups. However, my concern is if I install it and in a month from now wonder about it, in the mean time I may have installed other things on my computer, which may make it difficult if the registry is then set back a month. Also, another concern I have is I would just want to know what RealPlayer is doing to registry/settings, even if it's not noticeable at first. I wonder if there's a way to track what it does, or find out?

turbo

There are registry-tracker programs, though I am not familiar with the functionality. Do they let you undo changes made by a specific installation, for instance? Google might help you here.

mathman

I've used realplayer for years and I have a variety of anti-virus, etc. programs around. The only complaint I get from any of them is that realplayer leaves tracking cookies behind every time it is used.

For what it's worth, I do all new program downloads using CNET, which is supposed to check for viruses.

Pattonias

Is there any particular reason you have to use RealPlayer?

VLC media player doesn't have any of the controversy and plays movies/DVDs just fine and is also free.

mathman

My primary player is Windows Media Player. Two reasons: it is much more convenient for multiple files and in use it gives the time for all tracks ahead of time.

I use Realplayer as a backup for special needs (bit rate for files where WMP doesn't give it). Also WMP will not handle certain formats (.flv and .mp4) that Realplayer will.

I have VLC and found it less convenient than either of the others. Its primary virtue to me is that (very rarely) I will encounter a video that the others can't read but VLC will.

Evo

I've used RealPlayer for years and it's my favorite for ease of use and downloading videos.

f95toli

That was your mistake. NEVER trust online virus scans (maybe with the exception of scans on well known sites like Symantec etc), 99% of them are fake and a large percentage are frauds, they find "a virus" and then they try to to sell you software to remove it.

Realplayer is certainly not a trojan, Real has been around for ages (15 years?) and although I don't like their player it is certainly not malware.

mathman

One feature of Realplayer that I haven't found in any other player is the ability to capture streaming videos. It works with IE8 (and Avant, which is built on IE8) and Firefox. It doesn't seem to work with Opera. I can't say for other browsers, since these are the only ones I have.

27Thousand

Yes, that's the main reason why I'm interested in RealPlayer. So I was asking about any alternatives.

I know it doesn't work in Flock, however. It does work in Google Chrome.

DaveC426913

There are many, many people that have sworn off RealPlayer forEVER. They will never forgive RealPlayer for what they see as some horrifically invasive practices. I don;t recall the details; this was many years ago.

mathman

The only thing I have found resembling an invasive practice is that Realplayer leaves tracking cookies around when you use it.

snowflake

out of pure curiosity..may I ask if it your 'normal computering practice' to download stuff then run it through Jottie? Or did you do it on this one occasion?

Do you have a Resident Antivirus Program and is it up to date ?

If so did you use it to scan the exe for this program and what did it say?