The Arezzo counter and other "bad" CC...
Today Jacqui from TickledPinkSims informed me that she had the Arezzo Bathroom Counter in her game. What's so special about this then? Well, she doesn't use CC (custom content) in her game. So this counter in her game shouldn't be there. Recently she installed a couple of Sims from the exchange though, something she usually doesn't do. And guess what, one (or more?) of those Sims contained the Arezzo Bathroom Counter. I am a bit like Jacqui in that sense. I feel like I don't need CC, except for the few items I have made myself. I have all the expansion packs, stuff packs and a lot of official store content. So I was surprised to find out that my Sims were the reason Jacqui had the Arezzo Bathroom Counter in her game. Cause, I never installed this! But apparently I did anyway:
{C}
And I probably got it the same way Jacqui got it from me: by installing Sims (or other items?) from the exchange. Another option is by using SimPort. If you get someone else's Sim in your game, this Sim could have CC that you don't necessarily see.
The creator of the Arezzo Bathroom Counter is Angela from The Sims Resource. Googling the counter gave two useful results. One was the official forums, I'll tell more about that in a bit and the other result was a blogpost by Angela on TSR, which said:
Just letting you know i just replaced my Arezzo Bathroom counter because of a broken footprint. This resulted in the counter attaching to exports from game (like lots)
Lucky that uninstall solves that problem
Anyway, the counter has now been replaced with a fixed one that does not attach. Please Uninstall previous version and install the new one. Thank you!! :wub:
Yes, great, but seeing as this item cannot be removed from within my game, and it was NOT in my launcher, I couldn't remove it properly. Throwing out the entire Sims 3 folder wasn't an option. I spent so many hours, days even, on all those houses! And let's not forget my self Sim. I don't want to lose her. So what to do then?
The topic on the official forums gave more answers:
1. Make a copy of everything in the DCCache folder to a backup directory.
2. Then delete every file ending in .ebc from the DCCache folder. That is all of your store content. Don't freak out, you made a backup in step #1.
3. At this point the files in DCCache will be the ones ending in .dbc, this is your CC.
4. If you only have one or two files ending in .dbc go to step 6.
5. If you have many .dbc files delete all of them except dcdb0.dbc
6. Start the launcher and look for the bad CC.
7. If you find it, uninstall it. And go to step 10 below
8. If you don't find it, delete Dcdb0.dbc from the DCCache folder and copy dcdb1.dbc from your backup folder and rename it to dcdb0 (once it is copied into DCCache). If you have already done dcdb1.dbc, do it with dcdb2, etc. etc. until you find the bad content. Always copying (keeping the original in the backup, unchanged).
9. Return to step 6 above.
10. If you had to rename any file in step 8, change it's name BACK to what it was originally. Then copy it back into your backup folder, overwriting the original. You are doing this because you want the backup folder have the file with the bad cc removed.
11. Now copy everything from backup folder to the DCCache folder.
12. Congratulate yourself on removing the bad CC.
Specials thanks to Stormkeep for explaining that in detail!
If you are really fond of the CC in your game, follow those instructions.
I was chatting with Jacqui as we tried to remove the file from our games. See, the file may not be harmful and it's not really a virus. But it sure acts as one. It installs without you knowing it's there and it spreads the same way. And when you know it's there and try to remove it, you can't! So what I did was the following, and you can only do this if you don't care about losing your CC. I removed the DCBackup and DCCache folders. I also (re)moved my entire Downloads, SavedSims and Exports folders. And finally, I (re)moved everything from my Mods folder, except for the Nraas mods, cause they keep my game running smoothly. To be sure you can also delete compositorCache.package, simCompositorCache.package, scriptCache.package, CASPartCache.package and socialCache.package. Those are just cache files which can safely be deleted, as the game creates new ones anyway. I left everything else the way it was. So my Saves were still there, and therefore my worlds with their houses and families were still in the game. I then re-installed all the official store content I own. After starting up my game, I tested the Room Sort and Function Sort in Buy Mode and the counters were gone! I then exported Sims and a house to test if the items were really gone. So after thoroughly testing these items the counters were still gone.
I'm posting this to cause awareness of this issue. It has happened with other items before, and if you don't want this item in your game, there is a way to get rid of it! I also feel partially responsible for spreading the item with my recently uploaded Sims. I have since removed my infected items from the exchange and will re-upload the safe versions later. 
Lessons learned today: if you don't really download CC, but every now and then you download Sims from the exchange: choose Save File instead of Add to game, so you can check the files with programs like Delphy's Custard. Check if the file size is normal. A Sim that has no CC but is over 1mb should ring bells. I came across Sims in my folders that were nearly 20mb! Insane! And if you discover you have a file like the one I described here, inform your fans/followers/friends about the issue. Because you may have spread the file yourself, like I did.
Update 18/2/2014: Crinrict has also written a helpful article about the Arezzo counter. Check it out!