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Anyone using Blackbird?
MilesAhead:
Hi guys, I realize this is an old-ish thread but I wanted to clear a few things up.
-Blackbird Dev (March 20, 2016, 08:11 AM)
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Glad you chimed in. Thanks for the info. :Thmbsup:
tomos:
The only way to remove this is by logging in to your Google account, placing a google-supplied html file on your website's public root dir and letting them audit the site again. That whole process kinda struck us as strange but after confirming the Blackbird 32bit exe was the cause we decided to remove it from the site and asked MajorGeeks to help us out with hosting, which they kindly agreed to. This wasn't a viable option for the future since it's a mess to maintain and looks unprofessional, so we rewrote huge parts of Blackbird and released version 0.9.88 to solve such problems.
-Blackbird Dev (March 20, 2016, 08:11 AM)
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FYI, TrafficLight extension (from Bitdefender) blocks your homepage with a malware warning. (Via PaleMoon) I get
chrome://trafficlight/content/alerts/malware/page_blocked.html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.getblackbird.net%2F
Attention, malware!
This page contains viruses or other malware.
Web page:
http://www.getblackbird.net/
Take me back to safety
I understand the risks, take me there anyway
--- End quote ---
Bitdefender's false positives page is:
http://www.bitdefender.com/submit/
Curt:
yes, now I have used Blackbird - and I recommend it no, I don't!
Re: Win 10: the terrible CompatTelRunner is back!
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IainB:
Thanks for posting about this - it sparked my interest.
As a result, I'm about to trial Blackbird - from the documentation it seems it can do almost exactly what I was looking for, and more besides.
Will give some feedback on outcomes.
By the way, for the paranoid, Malwarebytes' realtime Malware and Malicious Website protection does not object to downloading the Blackbird proggie file from either MajorGeeks or getblackbird.net. The files have different checksums, because presumably, the latter's file version is slightly newer (MG=v0.9.88, B=v0.9.89).
IainB:
Whoops! Spoke too soon. Blackbird is a bit like a blunderbus! I think I shall avoid it.
This is what it does (per readme.txt):
Spoiler
Blackbird V6 (version 0.9) Readme
http://getblackbird.net
[email protected]
==WHAT BLACKBIRD DOES==
> Disables OneDrive
> Disables Cortana
> Disables Bing-integration
> Disables Wi-Fi Sense
> Disables Windows/Office Telemetry on all Windows versions
> Disables Xbox Live services
> Disables web content evaluation / URL check-in ("SmartScreen")
> Disables Windows Media Online DRM
> Disables Windows P2P Update sharing
> Disables all application metric-data collection agents
> Disables all AutoLoggers
> Disables Start menu ads
> Disables Windows Error Reporting
> Disables Diagnostic Tracking / "Connected User Experiences and Telemetry" service
> Disables WAP-push Message Routing service
> Prevents all location/contacts/handwritting/password sharing
> Prevents cross-device synchronization
> Prevents device meta-data collection
> Patches various data-leaks (IE/EDGE/Defender/Explorer/MRT)
> Removes Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA)
> Removes your unique Ad-ID tracking token and disables further Windows advertising profiling
> Removes GWX and all Windows 10 Upgrade triggers, icons, messages and other nagging
> Removes Windows 10 Upgrade setup files on Vista, 7, 8, 8.1
> Removes a bunch of Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 telemetry updates
> Blocks 130+ different tracking/telemetry/ad servers (supports IPv6/IPv4, Wifi/Eth)
> bonus (some) Youtube, Skype, Facebook ads blocked
==USING BLACKBIRD==
> Double-click blackbird.exe,
> Click Yes if prompted by UAC,
> Blackbird will perform a quick security scan (green means good - red means bad),
> Press any key to apply,
> Get some coffee (optional),
> Reboot the computer when it's finished. All done.
==SWITCHES==
You can also invoke Blackbird from CMD with the following command-line switches available:
blackbird -v > Verbose mode. Displays additional information on all changes as they're being made.
blackbird -s > Silent mode. No additional user interaction required, good for scripts
blackbird -r > Recovery mode. Restores all values changed by Blackbird to default Microsoft values.
blackbird -k > Kill Cortana completely (prevent searchUI.exe from loading) / can be unkilled using Blackbird Recovery mode.
blackbird -e > eMule LowID fix (experimental).
blackbird -f > Show frequently used programs in Start menu.
blackbird -x > Enable Xbox Live services.
blackbird -d > Disable Windows Defender.
blackbird -h > Disable Hibernation (deletes hiberfil.sys file from root).
blackbird -u > Disable automatic installation of updates / Sets to manual download and install only.
blackbird -m > Disable automatic installation of Malicious Removal Tool updates.
blackbird -? > Displays help information.
NOTE:
You can only run a single switch at one time.
==FAQ==
Q: Blackbird is stuck/hangs/crashes.
A: It takes a while (up to 1h on older CPUs) but if you're sure it's stuck, close blackbird, open cmd as admin, cd to the directory where you put the blackbird.exe file.
Type "blackbird -v" (without the quotes). This should give you a more detailed view of what's going on.
Q: Blackbird shows errors like "access denied", "unable to read file", "system error"...
A: This is normal, especially under W10. Try closing and running Blackbird again, this somehow forces Windows to behave. Not sure why.
Q: My antivirus reports Blackbird as malware.
A: This mostly happens with the 32bit version but we assure you, it's a false-positive. Use the 64bit version if possible, AVs seem to like it better for some reason.
We suspect this occurs because of the nature and relative obscurity of our software (registry editing,telemetry dismantling,..)
Some files are extracted during usage but they are all deleted before you even exit the program.
Q: I don't like what Blackbird did to my computer. How do I change it back?
A: Start cmd as administrator, cd to the directory where you put the blackbird.exe file, type "blackbird -r" (without quotes) and press enter.
This will run Blackbird in Recovery mode and will restore all changes made by Blackbird back to their default Microsoft values.
I killed the app. as it does all those things by default, and I don't want them all - e.g., I don't want OneDrive disabled.
Fortunately, you can use the command line to cause Blackbird to restore to windows default all those things it changes by default. I may have to run that now as I have no way of knowing whether I killed it in time before it had managed to make any changes. It doesn't seem to run a report or anything to tell you what it actually succeeded in doing.
Of course, restore to windows default is not necessarily the same thing as restore to what it had been before.
I'd recommend extreme caution as running this tool could arguably be a bit like sticking a screwdriver in amongst a bunch of live wires and trusting in the outcome. A black box approach.
...Use screwdrivers with insulated handles.
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