NetSpeed

Posted by Max Lehmann on June 14, 2016

What is NetSpeed?

Allegedly, NetSpeed is an application dedicated to optimizing network packets. However, we believe this application to be useless and recommend that you remove it as soon as the opportunity arises. Our malware researchers say that this application is not malicious because it does not perform any questionable actions while running on your computer. In fact, this application does nothing at all. However, if you want to get rid of it, then you will be surprised to find out that uninstalling it from Control Panel is not an option because it does not feature an uninstaller there. This is just one of the reasons we have classified it as a potentially unwanted program. If you want to find out more, then please continue reading. test test

Where does NetSpeed come from?

Our security analysts at Anti-spyware-101.com have found that this application does not have a website that could give us more background information, so all we have to go on is its interface. Furthermore, its files have not been digitally signed by the company that developed it, so we assume that the developers want to remain in the shadows and who can blame them when their software does not work at all.

As far as NetSpeed’s dissemination methods go, we want to emphasize software bundles as the most probable distribution method. As stated, this application neither has a dedicated distribution website nor is it featured on third-party websites as a standalone application. Therefore, our security analysts assume that this program’s developers employ software bundling as a means of installing it secretly. Indeed, if this program comes bundled, then you might install it accidentally while installing another program, presumably a legitimate one. Questionable free software sharing websites tend to take free applications, bundle them with an installer that contains additional programs and put it up for download. The owners of such sites make money from this, although we do not view NetSpeed as profitable. In any case, cleverly set up bundles hide their additional content that you can see only after selecting advanced or custom installation settings and then you can deselect their installation.

What does NetSpeed do?

However, some software bundles might not give you the opportunity to deselect the installation of NetSpeed and install it without your consent. If that is the case, then it will drop the following files on your computer: msvcp100.dll, msvcr100.dll, NetSpeed.exe, NetSpeed.exe.config, NetSpeedUpdater.exe, unins000.dat, unins000.exe. Depending on the architecture of Microsoft Windows which can be either 64-bit or 32-bit, this application will be installed in %PROGRAMFILES%\NetSpeed or %PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\NetSpeed. Note that x86 means that your operating system is 64-bit and stores applications developed for the 32-bit architecture. Now let us get into the details regarding its functions or the lack of them.

Our security analysts have tested this application on a test computer and the results have shown that it does not connect to the Internet. Still, NetSpeed displays random numbers saying that it has optimized this or that many network packets while it did nothing at all. Also, its interface suggests that it is supposed to optimize your Internet for online browsing, streaming, and gaming, but again, it fails to deliver all three of these functions. Therefore, we recommend that you uninstall this application, but there is a problem — it does not feature an uninstaller in Control Panel.

How to remove NetSpeed

Since Control Panel does not feature the necessary uninstaller, it does not mean that it is not present on your computer. As mentioned one of its files located in %PROGRAMFILES%\NetSpeed or %PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\NetSpeed is unins000.exe, which means that it contains an uninstaller, and you have to go directly to its file patch and run it. Alternatively, you can just delete the entire folder containing the files mentioned previously. Please refer to the removal guide on how to get rid of this application.