Thank you for taking the time to install and test CodecInstaller.

While, I am already familiar with GSpot, (always installed on my system as part of the K-Lite codec pack), I do not often use it, and certainly am not adept in understanding all that it says. The reason I tried CodecInstaller was some old videos I had recorded off my DVB card. While these files play smoothly in Ubuntu with the extra codecs installed, somehow I cannot manage to get the video playing fine under XP with VLC, media player classic, etc. GSpot and CodecInstaller both say I already have the codecs installed.

But somewhere along the way, it all went side-track when Threatfire triggered the security stuff. Now that all is in peace again, maybe I will have sometime in a Sunday evening to look for a solution for the video files again.

I decided to install this under the “ReturNil” sandbox, and check it out thoroughly, and found no real issues. As for the AU_, BU_, & CU_ .exe’s, I know of several programs that create temporary files on launch or uninstall – could the initials stand for “A-Uninstall(er)”, “B-Uninstall”, etc?

I understand your desire for safety, but it seems clean to me – perhaps the Software Creator being Italian, and therefore using Italian in his code is triggering False Positives?

Still, I understand your “Better Safe than Sorry” approach, and I’d recommend “GSpot”, mentioned above – it has a VERY long history of reliability and safety, and when you select the “Add [or remove] GSpot ‘Send-To’ option” under Options -> Settings, it easily (Right-Click file -> Send-To -> GSpot) does a great job of easily and quickly detecting which Codecs are used/needed by a particular file. However, you’ll have to Download them yourself (I’d suggest http:\\www.codecs.com), and as mentioned, several other features of “CodecInstaller” are not included in GSpot.

Everybody has their own preferences, and ‘Comfort Level’ for programs – such as “Internet Explorer”, “FireFox”, “Opera”, “K-Meleon”, etc – even “PC” vs “Mac” vs “Linux” – To each, his own!

Samer, THANKS! (again!)

CodecInstaller created AU_.exe BU_.exe and CU_.exe (size of all of them 67,046 Bytes) during uninstall.

Googling the temporary file names returns some false alarms and also:
http://www.prevx.com/filenames/2090368270727727277-X1/AU_.EXE.html

The file sizes mentioned on Prevex don’t match, (although that would not have really proved much even if they did). These temp files also pass clean through virustotal.

I can only guess that it was a false alarm.
Sorry for the inconvenience. (please feel free to remove my previous post)

Note that there are 2 versions you can download. The above Virustotal analysis is for the full version. The other (network) version needs to access the internet in order to download the installation components in real time when you install the program.

This is a program that I’ve used extensivley ever since I wrote about it without any hint of trouble, and I doubt that its malware in any form. I will investigate further though.

In the first run of codec installer, I was surprised how persistent it was to call home the moment I ran it. I blocked the connection once (did not set a block rule yet) and it kept trying to connect.

Since I am more on the cautious side with unfamiliar software, I decided to uninstall it. The moment I launched the uninstaller, Threadfire blocked it with a high-risk warning of the Heuristic analysis, the uninstaller was trying to create multiple copies of itself on the hard disk.

This made me be more careful, and I increased Comodo Defence security level which would let me see step by step what the uninstaller was trying to do, told ThreadFire to let uninstaller to continue, and guess what, it copied itself into two files in temp folder: Au_.exe and Bu_.exe, since these files are known to be associated with Spyware.SpyFalcon I was not going to let it continue.

Interestingly, Prevex V2 (which has already saved my PC from malware once before) reports the main executable CodecInstaller.exe as “Heuristic: Suspicious File With Outbound Communications”

While I am not able to prove this is definitely malware with more solid facts, I am sure it is pretty damn close, if not one. And honestly, am disappointed to see it gain a recommendation from freewaregenius which I had regarded as a good source of advice.

Anyone has had a similar experience with codec installer? I would be more than glad to be proven wrong, though I would certainly stay away from anything from jockersoft nonetheless.

forget it and find other replacements !!!

What I am saying is that given that a media file is a complicated beast I understand why the authors of this program choose this probability system to report on a file.