By “sneaky installs,” I mean those programs that get installed along with other programs — usually they are perfunctorily mentioned during the install process with a little checkbox (checked by default) so that they can later claim that you chose to install these programs.
Honestly, I don’t care what they are; I dislike installs trying to sneak extra software onto my computer. It used to be that adware/spyware was the main offender in this arena — that may still be, but this post was prompted by my latest install of Sun’s JRE.
Every single time I install it, I uncheck the “Install Google Toolbar for IE” — now I need to also uncheck the on-by-default “Install Google Desktop.”
I’m a big fan of Google; despite their slow meandering towards monopolizing the entire Internet (if you listen to some), I still like them. They make great stuff. I like companies who make great stuff.
In this case, that doesn’t matter. I have this aversion to installing software that comes bundled with something else, checked by default. Part of that is because I normally use neither of those products — I don’t need the Google toolbar, because I don’t use Internet Explorer. And I’ve never found that Google Desktop filled a need, for me. I know some who swear by it, but I’ve never really seen the need.
Before you bundle that third-party software in with your desktop application, that affiliate marketing deal better be pretty lucrative — because my bet is, your customers aren’t going to be thanking you.
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