Desktop Weather Channel

Desktop Weather Channel is an application that promises to enable users to check their local weather forecasts “with one click, very fast and secure.” This application shows a 5-day weather forecast for a selected area in a separate window. This window can be opened by clicking on a button located in the upper-right corner of Google Chrome. Since Desktop Weather Channel is a Google Chrome browser extension and does not work on other browsers, you will not see this button at the top of Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer or a different web browser. Evidently, this button installed on a Google Chrome browser enables users to access the weather forecast very quickly and, as a consequence, save some time. This weather application works well, so it is not surprising that so many users find it beneficial and make a decision to keep it installed on their computers. Despite the fact that this program acts the way it should, it cannot be trusted 100%, according to specialists. They do not say that it is going to act like existing serious computer infections, i.e. malware; however, it has been found that it might perform one undesirable activity. Read this report and find out more about this program.

Since there are so many users’ complaints on the web that Desktop Weather Channel shows advertisements, specialists at pcthreat.com have decided to conduct thorough research in order to find out more about it. They have not noticed any commercial advertisements, but, judging from the piece of information found in the Privacy Policy document, this piece of software is capable of doing that. The following sentence has been found in this document: “We may allow third parties to serve advertisements.” Evidently, this potentially unwanted application might provide users with third-party advertisements. If you start seeing them too and you are sure that they are shown by Desktop Weather Channel, you should ignore them. Since this program is not very bad, malicious websites should not be advertised, but it might be true that some of these websites you will be redirected to after clicking on a commercial shown on your screen might try to obtain various details, including IP address, browser information, and other details from you. Actually, it seems that Desktop Weather Channel itself might also collect information about users too, as it is said in the Privacy Policy. Fortunately, it does not gather personal information.

To be able to work properly on computers, Desktop Weather Channel makes several modifications. First of all, it creates a folder for its extension in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\pkpnnpepdfaiilcelopnjonhhgknpfon and %UserProfile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\pkpnnpepdfaiilcelopnjonhhgknpfon. On top of that, it creates two new registry keys in the system registry. One of these registry keys is responsible for the uninstaller in Control Panel, whereas the other is associated with the Google Chrome browser extension added: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Google\Chrome\Extensions\pkpnnpepdfaiilcelopnjonhhgknpfon.

Even though Desktop Weather Channel works beneficially, i.e. shows the local weather forecast, it still cannot be trusted because of the way it is distributed. Actually, it has fallen into the category of potentially unwanted programs mainly because of that. Researchers say that this program, even though it can be downloaded from its official source desktopweatherchannel.com, is capable of slithering onto computers bundled with free applications. It comes as an additional offer; however, users usually do not see that because they are not very attentive and thus cannot prevent unwanted software from entering their computers. In fact, users are not always informed about the installation of additional software, so it is not surprising that they know nothing about that. Luckily, there is a way to prevent untrustworthy applications from slithering onto the computer. All you need to do is to install a reputable security application on your system. The untrustworthy software will not bother you as long as this tool is kept enabled.

You can deactivate Desktop Weather Channel only by removing the browser extension through the Add-ons Manager on Google Chrome. This can be done through Control Panel, so the removal process should not be problematic. If you still face difficulties during the manual removal process, consult our manual removal instructions (they are placed right below this paragraph). If they do not help you much either, leave this job for an automatic malware remover, e.g. SpyHunter. Your system will be cleaned within seconds.

How to delete Desktop Weather Channel manually

Windows XP

1. Click on the Start button to open the menu.
2. Click Control Panel.
3. Click Add or Remove Programs.
4. Select the unwanted program from the list.
5. Remove it.

Windows 7/Vista

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Open Control Panel.
3. Select Uninstall a program.
4. Right-click on Desktop Weather Channel for Chrome version 0.0.4 (the name of the entry might be slightly different, depending on the version of the program installed).
5. Click Uninstall.

Windows 8/8.1/10

1. Press Win+X simultaneously.
2. Open Control Panel.
3. Click Uninstall a program.
4. Select the undesirable application.
5. Click the Uninstall button.