Web Companion

The Web Companion is an application described as a useful anti-virus tool that could help protect users from potential privacy breaches or malware threats. The application is developed by Adaware (previously known as Lavasoft) and it is entirely legitimate in its nature. Due to the marketing strategies that the developers decided to use for the distribution of their application, however, the Web Companion is considered a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program).

Most PUPs are spread through a method called 'bundling.' It is characterized by adding the installation of the PUP as a preselected option that is a part of the installation process of another far more popular freeware program. Most users may not even realize that a PUP is going to be installed unless they check the 'Advanced' or 'Custom' settings of the other application specifically.

During its installation, the Web Companion will attempt to receive the necessary permissions to start modifying the settings of the user's Web browser. With many users simply skipping through the installation steps of the program to make the process as fast as possible, the application is guaranteed to be successful in the majority of cases. It would then proceed to modify the homepage, new page tab, and the default search engine to open either Bing, Yandex or Yahoo search engines.