What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

Post by danielweber » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 2:20 PM UTC

zxcdw wrote: post #66

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #41

And this is why Apple created Gatekeeper and made the Mac OS X App Store so ridiculously onerous for developers[1]. The software world is, for all intents and purposes, a thin sheen of gold flecks and diamonds atop a veritable cesspool of shit. You can just imagine the conversation at 1 Infinite Loop: Marketer: The Panic guys are considering pulling out of the App Store. Maybe we should reconsider our App Store strat…

> and that it's our own fault Whose fault exactly is it? Has anybody in HN worked with a company which does this crapware bundling, let alone creating? Or does anybody know anyone who's "in the business"? Because I, quite honestly, can't understand how or why people would be doing this. Is it really that "Well, I know this shit is going to infect thousands of machines with software which nobody would like to have, bu…

Post by cordite » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 2:22 PM UTC

weavie wrote: post #11

I regularly get called by people complaining that their computer no longer works. Pretty much every time it turns out that their machine is loaded with crapware. It amazes me how people just put up with random browser windows popping up and having to search via some random search engine that has been imposed on them. At the minute I just have to put up with spending a few hours removing the worst offenders and then r…

Post by danielweber » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 2:27 PM UTC

scrabble wrote: post #170

tdicola wrote: post #6

I had to install the DirectX user runtime recently and was pretty shocked to see Microsoft has loaded it up with lots of crapware. First when you click download from its page at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35 you're prompted to set MSN as your homepage, download the malicious software removal tool, and download IE11 (if you're on Windows). Then after you skip that you get the download and…

I stopped trusting Microsoft installers when Windows Update listed the Bing Desktop as a Critical Update.

Post by lsaferite » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 2:29 PM UTC

makomk wrote: post #113

anon1385 wrote: post #105

Download.com is just the beginning of this crap. At least a lot of people now realise that download.com is shady. Google is just as bad as download.com, but people still think of Google as a reputable site. Even in this discussion people are recommending just googling the product name to find a download. Please don't tell people to do that. It's dangerous. If you type terms like 'firefox' into google search much of t…

At least the actual, genuine result is visible without scrolling. A few years Google were paying computer manufacturers to set a special version of Google with more prominent ads as their default search engine. The net result was that if you got a new computer and searched for Firefox using their default, Google-supplied search the genuine result was actually below the fold in some cases.

Post by asyncwords » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 2:30 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #15

Renaud wrote: post #14

Instead of dowloading from Sourceforge (loaded with ads and its own devious 'installer'), CNET, Download, etc, there are no-crapware alternatives that offer more management tools as well (remembering your list of apps across machines, automated updates, discoverability): Ninite: nice, simple, installer: just select apps and let the installer do it all for you. AllMyApps: all the apps, no crapware (at least for now).…

A nice list. How long they're all around? I still can't shake the feeling that it's only a matter of time before Moloch gets to them and they'll start serving crapware like any others. I'd love to be wrong on that.