What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps • Hacker News Board

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#31

Post by jenscow » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 10:16 AM UTC

apetrovic wrote: post #27

Microsoft dropped the ball with lack of App Store. With all app store's drawbacks, that's the place where regular user can pay easily without thinking will someone steal his/her credit car number, the place where applications should be harmless, and the place where (and this is important) the user can compare prices between similar applications. Windows doesn't have the app store. And nobody (read: very, very small p…

> the user can compare prices between similar applications

While that's excellent for the consumer, it's not so good for the developer where the pricing ends up being a race to the bottom.

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#32

Post by ddebernardy » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 10:21 AM UTC

apetrovic wrote: post #27

Microsoft dropped the ball with lack of App Store. With all app store's drawbacks, that's the place where regular user can pay easily without thinking will someone steal his/her credit car number, the place where applications should be harmless, and the place where (and this is important) the user can compare prices between similar applications. Windows doesn't have the app store. And nobody (read: very, very small p…

Could they have done so, though?

The idea of offering an App Store à la Apple has been in the air for ages, but it only saw the day a few years back.

Imagine the outcry that would have occurred had MS decided to run an MS App Store while fighting off IE-related anti-trust issues in court.

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#33

Post by BSousa » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 10:22 AM 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…

Can't you do something similar with Windows Restore points?

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#34

Post by ZoFreX » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 10:22 AM UTC

> And no matter how technical you might be, most of the installers are so confusing that there’s no way a non-geek could figure out how to avoid the awful.

Or even a geek who is in a hurry. I came very close to accidentally installing crapware when I was downloading things from Sourceforge the other day. It's no wonder regular end-users end up with all this crap.

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#35

Post by dingaling » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 10:23 AM 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…

Firefox has a very useful setting to block installation of add-ons, which I've taken to setting after installing some of the fundamental, safe add-ons.

In about:config, create a boolean value xpinstall.enabled and set false.

This does protect against those browser toolbars that people somehow manage to install.

However there is apparently a UI feature that prompts to re-enable installation ( though I've never seen this ):

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=668999

It

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#36

Post by apetrovic » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 10:26 AM UTC

jenscow wrote: post #31

apetrovic wrote: post #27

Microsoft dropped the ball with lack of App Store. With all app store's drawbacks, that's the place where regular user can pay easily without thinking will someone steal his/her credit car number, the place where applications should be harmless, and the place where (and this is important) the user can compare prices between similar applications. Windows doesn't have the app store. And nobody (read: very, very small p…

> the user can compare prices between similar applications While that's excellent for the consumer, it's not so good for the developer where the pricing ends up being a race to the bottom.

That's market. You can say the same for various toothpaste brands lumped together on the shelf.

Besides, it's true that the race to the bottom more or less ruined the phone market, but on Mac app store I see good (and popular) applications priced $50 or $100.

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#37

Post by mxfh » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 10:27 AM UTC

apetrovic wrote: post #27

Microsoft dropped the ball with lack of App Store. With all app store's drawbacks, that's the place where regular user can pay easily without thinking will someone steal his/her credit car number, the place where applications should be harmless, and the place where (and this is important) the user can compare prices between similar applications. Windows doesn't have the app store. And nobody (read: very, very small p…

Windows 8.x+ has an app store, but sometimes I think even Microsoft doesn't know it exists by all the crap and impostors it's listing in it.

here are some common search terms:

antivirus: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/search#q=antiviru...

ccleaner: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/search#q=ccleaner...

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#38

Post by weavie » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 10:28 AM UTC

BSousa wrote: post #33

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…

Can't you do something similar with Windows Restore points?

I seem to recall getting burnt by them a long time ago, so I've never trusted them. Are they stable now?

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#39

Post by cturhan » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 10:30 AM UTC

I really wonder why people prefer some other websites to download the product instead of its own website. When you type "ccleaner", "kmplayer" etc on google, the first one is always the product website. The second and third ones are the websites distributing product with adware/spywares.

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#40

Post by noonespecial » Tue, Jan 13, 2015, 10:33 AM UTC

apetrovic wrote: post #27

Microsoft dropped the ball with lack of App Store. With all app store's drawbacks, that's the place where regular user can pay easily without thinking will someone steal his/her credit car number, the place where applications should be harmless, and the place where (and this is important) the user can compare prices between similar applications. Windows doesn't have the app store. And nobody (read: very, very small p…

The one who dropped the ball is CNet. They could have used their good name to establish a curated software marketplace and done subscription, app sales, freemium... anything at all other than giving their reputation a giant flush for a few bucks and earning themselves a 127.0.0.1 in the hosts file of computers I work on.