Classic WX Watcher with Wunderground

Discontinued Software Weather Watcher - Support
1

I am still using the last free version of Weather Watcher. It still updates as it should. I still receive alerts in a timely manner. And it still serves a good purpose. However, I am also using 2 other weather programs that are of equal usefulness. Storm Predator ($50 D/L - $60 CD-ROM) and Ambient Weather. Ambient Weather I am highly impressed with for pulling information from both Wunderground and personally owned weather stations for live updating. I see that the WWL uses WeatherBug, but there has been a lot of controversy with their services as millions of people have encountered viruses from the WB application and website it’s self. As an internet security guru myself and also encountered viruses from WB and their server, I would just use wunderground and drop WB before something could possibly infect your program and servers. It’s your website and your program, so it’s your call. Just trying to prevent you and your users from encountering dangerous viruses in the long run.

I am not trying to advertise programs that you create or divert your sales to other companies

2

Millions of viruses? Do you have any information to support that claim?

http://mailbag.ask-leo.com/is_weatherbug_a_virus_000278.html

I use WeatherBug’s API to access their weather data. It’s impossible to get a virus from an API.

It’s great to hear that you’re concerned about what you’re accessing on the Internet. However, it’s kind of scary that you claim to be a guru and are offering such bad advice. This is how WeatherBug-type rumors get started :icon_smile:

3

Just going with bad experiences that I have had in the past and to what others have told and shown me. I do claim to be an internet security guru only because I promote programs that are of great help and are very reliable.

Programs include:
COMODO Internet Security
COMODO Verification Engine
Spybot: Search & Destroy

Only showing concern and respect to your company.

4

Are you saying that you have no evidence to back up your statement that millions have received a virus from WeatherBug’s software and/or website? If you’re truly an Internet security guru, then you should have no trouble providing such supporting evidence. I respect your concern, but guiding people with rumors is nothing but a disservice.

I’ve been working with WeatherBug for four years now. WeatherBug is a great company and would never intentionally do harm to anyone.

5

This link should give you about 11,000 hits that disagree with your opinion Mike.

http://tinyurl.com/yjvbwyq

And the old saying is: where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

As for intentional; the difference between murder and manslaughter is intent, but regardless of intent someone is still dead.

6

Ed_P, it’s unfortunate to see you took the time to redirect me to a condescending link, but had no time to investigate even the first page of those results. None of them support the claim that WeatherBug is and/or was pushing viruses through their software and/or website. Further more, none of the links are from a well-known security-related company.

And here are a few more old sayings for you:

Wise people talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.

Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil.

Man is a tame or civilized animal; never the less, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill-educated he is the most savage of earthly creatures.

7

This is the first I have heard of Weatherbug being virused. It has never set off NIS or any other virus program I have run in the past. That would be commercial suicide for them. Sounds to me like someone got a bad copy of a WAREZ related program somewhere. As they say, you get what you pay for concerning WAREZ.

8

From the 1st page results:

http://www.pchell.com/support/weatherbug.shtml

How to I Remove WeatherBug?

Many times Spybot Search and Destroy, Ad-aware SE, and Spy Sweeper among others dont find traces of Weatherbug in systems as spyware. So the only options to remove it are through Add/Remove Control Panel or manually through the Windows Registry.

In order to avoid future problems with Weatherbug, make sure the program is not running before uninstalling it. If there is a WeatherBug icon in the system tray (in the lower right hand corner of the screen) you’ll need to right-click on it and choose “Exit WeatherBug” or “Terminate Weatherbug”.

Once the program is closed, you can remove it easily from the Add/Remove Programs section of the Control Panel by following these steps:

Click START (lower, left of computer screen)
Select SETTINGS and CONTROL PANEL
Double click ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS
Select “WeatherBug” (or other programs) from the list of applications
Click ADD/REMOVE and follow the instructions
If you receive a warning stating that the system could not delete a file, please click on WeatherBug and then ADD/REMOVE again.

Upon rebooting your system, if the Weatherbug program remains or you receive error messages about Weatherbug upon rebooting, then perform the following Advanced Uninstall procedures.

  1. Click on START, then select RUN.
  2. In the RUN box, type REGEDIT then click OK. This will open your Windows Registry Editor (following ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS, some of these keys will already be removed – if you do not find a key, please move on to the next step).
  3. Click on the plus sign next to the folder named HKEY_CURRENT_USER
  4. Click on the plus sign next to the folder named Software
  5. Click on the folder, “AWS,” to highlight it
  6. Press the DELETE key on your keyboard and choose “YES” to delete this folder
  7. Click on the plus sign next to the folder named Microsoft
  8. Click on the plus sign next to the folder named Windows
  9. Click on the plus sign next to the folder named CurrentVersion
  10. Click on the folder named Run to highlight it (only the “Run” folder)

In the right-hand pane, look for a line stating “Weather.” If you see it, please click on it to highlight it then press the DELETE key on your keyboard and select “YES.”

  1. Close the Registry Editor

To delete the AWS directory

  1. Open “MY COMPUTER” icon on your desktop.
  2. Double-click the C drive.
  3. Double-click “Program Files” folder to open.
  4. Right click on the folder titled “AWS” and select DELETE.

Extra removal instructions for Windows XP

  1. Open “MY COMPUTER” icon on your desktop.
  2. Double-click the C drive.
  3. Double-click on Document and Settings
  4. Double-click the folder that has your name next to it (or the name of whomever the machine is registered to)
  5. Double-click the “Application Data” folder to open it and delete the folder entitled “WeatherBug”.
  6. Restart your computer and the uninstall is complete.

Finally, there is an extra icon in the Internet Explorer bar that is left even after uninstalling Weatherbug, to remove this extra content button, use HijackThis and remove the following line

O9 - Extra button: WeatherBug - {AF6CABAB-61F9-4f12-A198-B7D41EF1CB52} - C:\Program Files\AWS\WeatherBug\Weather.exe (file missing) (HKCU)

To Uninstall My Search

Click START (lower, left of computer screen)
Select SETTINGS and CONTROL PANEL
Double click ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS
Select “My Search” from the list of applications
Click ADD/REMOVE and follow the instructions

Compare that to the steps needed to uninstall WWL or any other normal app.

The facts speak for themselves.

9

There is a big difference between adware and viruses. WWL is neither.

10

Information that is copied/pasted from a random website on the Internet is hardly a fact. Did you verify that uninstall process? I did. It’s not accurate. WeatherBug can easily be uninstalled from the Add/Remove section of the Windows Control Panel.

Exactly. Almost all of the major weather companies have weather software that is classified as “adware”. A lot of people don’t want to pay for software, so they choose to view ads to pay for their free use.

11

Not random, rather from the page you directed me to:

Did you verify that uninstall process?

Of course not, I’m not going to infect myself with malware to verify that.

I did. It’s not accurate. WeatherBug can easily be uninstalled from the Add/Remove section of the Windows Control Panel.

I understand your support for them but I don’t have a financial relationship with them.

12

Then maybe you should have a little more faith in Mike and WWL.

13

You are more savvy than the average computer user, so you should have no problem finding a well-known security company that classifies WeatherBug as malware and/or a virus. It’s quite obvious that you weren’t able to find any supporting information.

Unlike yourself, I actually did the research and I know the facts. I would not be working with them if your assumptions were true. As they say, the proof is in the pudding.

14

They do say that, but it’s incorrect. The actual saying is supposed to be “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” (which obviously makes a lot more sense)

Sorry, I couldn’t resist, seeing as how you were arguing accuracy. :icon_smile:

For the record, YEARS ago, when Weather Bug was first starting out, a security program on my computer (don’t recall if it was McAfee or Spybot S&D) ID’d it as malware. Possibly a false positive, but whatever the case, I’m sure they’ve worked that out by now, and are clean, as you say. I still use your classic program, though. Because I simply happen to be satisfied with it and like it better. Nothing to do with alleged viruses in WB.

15

DotGE, “The proof is in the pudding” is a commonly used version of the original phrase. I’m sure you already knew that though :icon_smile:

Just a few weeks ago, Norton was blocking Weather Watcher Live. It was surely a false-positive, and was eventually corrected on their end a few days later. It’s a known fact that virus scanners are not 100% accurate, nor are many rumors on the Internet.

16

Mike: Oh yes. Just a bit of gentle ribbing.

I’m also fully aware of the last 2 things you mentioned. I was merely recounting a past experience which, as I said, was years ago. As I also stated, whether any problem was real OR a false alarm, I don’t doubt that WB has improved their ability to work with the antimalware developers, as well as their own capabilities in fixing things, as time has gone on.

:icon_smile: