This page was created to fix the Preload.js/tag.imonomy.com pop-up issue.
If you have the torrent client called Utorrent installed on your PC you may have recently started to experience а series of pop-up installation prompts, which demand that you install a process called preload.js on your machine. Naturally, this is a very suspicious activity and you have every right to be worried about it. In this article we’ll explain what is preload.js and why imonomy.com is responsible for trying to launch it on your machine. It may also be possible to encounter the following issue when using other software or sites that work together with tag.imonomy.com, but more on this later.
What is tag.imonomy.com?
Imonomy.com is a major site and web service that specializes in monetizing pictures. A great deal of sites, programs and services work as affiliate partners to Imonomy.com and Utorrent is no exception. In fact a lot of the Ads you’ll see displayed inside Utorrent are actually hosted on imonomy.com. Tag.imonomy.com is part of the same domain and it is likely a service interface to which different apps connect to download information.
What is Preload.js?
Well to put it simply this is a JavaScript library that allows for the management of different assets – such as documents, sounds and pictures. Unfortunately the thing is that you should not be seeing an interface to install it – at all. All required assets should be build inside of Utorrent and you should NOT be seeing any prompts to install it at all.
All of this strongly points either to a malware infection or to a bug with the latest version of Utorrent. So far one of the programmers behind Imonomy.com has emerged on Reddit and various forums and claimed that the installation of Preload.js is unintended – or to put it otherwise a bug. The same person has requested feedback for this issue – the URL to which the installer points out, as well as a copy of the executable. We are inclined to believe this is not a hoax, but vigilance should remain high at all times. After all, not too long ago we saw the creation of ransomware virus written entirely in Java. Should the site of a popular program – like Utorrent – ever get hаcked, thousands of people may be exposed to the danger.
With everything said so far we definitely do not recommend that you install Preload.js on your machine. Even if it does not appear to contain actual malware it is basically a process gone rogue – uncontrollable bug. It may introduce system crashes, glitches and all kinds of other problems. In the guide below you’ll find one solution on how to block the pop-up from appearing on your system. However, I’d like to point out that it may be prudent to think of replacing Utorrent altogether. Utorrent, although still very popular, is no longer the light care free bittorrent client it used to be. Recent years have seen an increase not only in features, but also in adverts. There was even a period in which the program tried to install BitCoin miner code into unsuspecting victims. There are plenty of new Bittorrent clients that were created following the original idea behind Utorrent – like Deluge or Qbit Torrent – to name two. After all seeing advertisements on your torrent is bad enough, but having bugs and other problems to go with them is frankly too much, regardless of how well liked the main program may be.
If you encounter a prompted download of preload.js without having Utorrent installed and running on your machine we urge you to be even more careful. The chances of that being an actual malware attack increase exponentially, because so far the only “bug” issues appear to be exclusive to Utorrent. If you suspect that your computer is subjected to a malware attack your best course of action is to terminate the window win the prompt with the help of the task manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del), then install anti-malware software and run a full system scan.
How to remove the tag.imonomy/preload.js popup
Step 1:
Locate the folder, in which you have the executable utorrentie.exe stored. Delete it.
Step 2:
Open the Notepad and, without entering anything in it, just save the file as utorrentie.exe . Close the file. Locate it, where it’s been saved, and give it a right click with your mouse, choosing
Properties -> Security -> Advanced -> Disable Inheritance.
Step 3:
Some people believe that Utorrent still has BitCoin mining protocols and this is what causes any possible CPU usage spikes. If you are one of them, or you simply want to be cautious feel free to run this step on your machine. It does not come with any downsides.
Copy and paste the following into Notepad:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] “DisallowRun”=dword:00000001 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\DisallowRun] “1”=”utorrentie.exe”
Once you are done use the Save As command to give the file the .reg extension. Once you do this double click on the newly created file to run it. This will install the necessary blockers in the registry.
Step 4:
So far this issue seems to not be a malware threat, but there is a recent rise of a javascript-based ransomware. For this reason we urge you to scan your system (for free) with this tool right here. It’s better to be safe than sorry. We are linking you to a certified malware scanner.
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