[roddy32]

I am sure this practice by many of the software vendors lately has aggravating many of you as it has me. Some people are fighting back now.

Way to go Mow, Susan, Donna and others.

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Thursday August 6, 2009

It's bad enough when regular software throws in other packages that you didn't expect. But when you get an uninvited install with a security update, that's going too far.

[banthecheck]Now a Microsoft MVP screen-named MowGreen is starting a campaign to get vendors not to default to installing other programs when they install security updates. It's called BAN THE CHECK because the checkbox to select installation defaults to on. I bought the bantheckeck.com domain, so I guess I'm in on it too now. For now it just redirects to MowGreen's page on bleepingcomputer.com.

There are lots of vendors who do this, but let's face it: the biggies, the ones that matter, are Adobe and Sun, especially Adobe. The software that gets installed is mostly toolbars, like the Google, MSN, and Yahoo! toolbars.

I'm sympathetic to a point to the fact that they are getting paid to push the other software and paid to default to on, but enough is enough.

Source
http://blogs.pcmag.c...n_the_check.php

[roddy32]

More from MVP Susan Bradley

The article is excellent and fairly long including screenshots so I will only post a short bit of it with the link. Please read the rest of it when you get some time. It is well worth the time.

Sun, Apple, Microsoft install chaff with patches

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By Susan Bradley

When you apply a security update for one of the programs on your PC, beware of uninvited software that wants to come along for the ride.

Vendors are more and more often going over the line, piggy-backing unsolicited commercial products and services onto crucial security patches.

http://windowssecret...p/090813#story1

[roddy32]

As mentioned in Susan's article. CoU (Calendar of Updates) which is owned by friend and MVP Donna Buenaventura has an Installer's Hall of Fame which has a huge amount of vendors listed that are using this practice. It is also our sister site to LnR. This list is constantly updated as our members at CoU and LnR find vendors that are doing this as they are either updating their software or downloading something new. MANY of these vendors are also doing this when issuing a security update as Mow's Ban the Check above points out as well as Susan's article.

CoU's Installer's Hall of Fame
http://www.calendaro...s/calendar44514