So I was recently contacted by one of my windows users friends. They had accidently deleted a bunch of files off their computer that they needed. I did a quick google search and found a free utility called FreeUndelete 2.0. Normally people charge an arm and a leg for undelete utilities. Quite frankly, this made me a little bit suspicious. I googled up and down and could not find anything malicious about the software. Could it be possible that someone was actually giving away a legitimate undelete program?
I weighed the pros and cons with my windows users, explained that he was up to date on all of his windows security installs, that he was running Windows Defender, and that there was a 50/50 chance this program was legit, or a back door. I said I would go for it, he needed the files, and he did have some layers of protection with the above mentioned.
We went ahead and did the install. The files where found and recovered. I also went ahead and uninstalled the program. I then proceeded to search for any remnants of the program. The program cleaned itself off the disk. It did however leave several entries behind in the registry. What windows program doesn't? I cleaned them out for good measure.
A lot more research would need to be done to see if this is a valid program or not. So far the user I was helping is happy. There does not seem to be any malware, spyware or anything else installed on the computer and the user has his files back.
I would be curious to know if anyone out there knows more about this product and if truly legitimate and does not install any spyware.
