Do you know what Furniture Guru is?
According to the research and testing performed by our malware analysts, Furniture Guru is a browser extension for Mozilla Firefox that can redirect you to websites selling furniture and other accessories. You can get it on your PC accidentally as it is distributed via shady software bundles. If you got it that ways, then you may want to remove it because it does not do anything useful anyway. Researchers suggest that the sole purpose of this program is to promote affiliated websites and make money. While this program is not malicious, it is a potentially unwanted program (PUP) due to its shady distribution methods and questionable usefulness. To find out more about this application, please read the information provided below.
If you were to install Furniture Guru, willingly or otherwise, then you will be met with advertisements in the form of redirections that will occur while you browse the Internet. Our cyber security experts say that this particular application was designed to redirect you to Homeshop18.com, Paytm.com, Jabong.com, Amazon.in, and the like to generate ad revenue. Allegedly, this program was supposed to assist you in buying furniture, but that is not actually the case. Admittedly, it promotes furniture-related websites, but that is all it does. It provides you with on special offers or discounts so, at best, it generates awareness about sites that sell furniture.
We also want to mention the possibility of this program collecting some anonymous information about you and using it to advance the agenda of its creators. Researchers say that this extension will collect and send information such as your approximate geographical location, Internet Protocol (IP) address, Internet Service Provider (ISP,) browser type, operating system type, and so on. This information can be used to show you geotargeted ads and redirect you to them. You may find this application to be completely unnecessary and intrusive because our researchers certainly do. This program serves a particular selfish agenda and does not serve to provide a useful service to the people that were unfortunate to get it on their browsers accidentally. Now let us discuss how this particular program is distributed.
Cyber security specialists have concluded that Furniture Guru’s developers have employed a rather deceptive distribution method of bundling this browser extension with freeware featured on websites hosting freeware downloads. The bundled installers are said to install this extension while installing primary software and not always allowing you to deselect it. Some bundles come clean and show you additional content that you can decline to install. However, some may hide it, and you may have to opt for advanced or custom installation settings to deselect it. There is also a third category of installers that do not come clean about their contents and do not allow you to uncheck the installation of additional software. Hence, Furniture Guru can be installed on your PC without your knowledge or authorization.
While Furniture Guru is by no means a malicious browser extension, it does exhibit some undesirable features such as redirecting you to promoted websites. Hence, it promotes them for monetary gain. The other problem is the usefulness of this application is almost nonexistent. The third problem is its possible deceptive distribution that involves installing it on your PC without your knowledge or consent. Therefore, researchers have classified it a potentially unwanted program. If you want to delete it from your PC, then you can make use of the manual removal guide provided below.
Removal Guide
- Launch Mozilla Firefox.
- Simultaneously press Ctrl+Shift+A.
- Click Extensions.
- Find Furniture Guru.
- Click the Remove button.
In non-techie terms:
Furniture Guru is promoted as useful application dedicated to assisting you in buying furniture, but we found that it is not all that useful and the fact of the matter is that it was created for Internet marketing purposes rather than actually helping its users. Also, the methods used to distribute it are rather shady as certain software bundle may install it on your PC secretly. If you do not want to see this program on your browser, please follow the instructions provided above.