Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Misbehaving Programs

You probably have had some of these programs.  Some but not all are free and everyone likes free.  Some free programs aren't really free.  In order for them to install, you have to agree to some stuff you don't want.  There may be an option to un-check it if you don't want it, but some of them will install it anyway. I always look to see if it did install and a lot of times I have to uninstall the unwanted junk.

Foxit is bad about this.  I love the reader and I know the folks at Foxit need to make some money so I guess this is how they do it. Because it is so much better than Adobe I just have to watch and uninstall the stuff I don't want.

I recently had an email program update. Incredimail is a good email program for folks that love the eye candy in email.  I use it just for testing an a test computer as a lot of folks sometimes have questions about it. When the update downloaded and before it installed, it wanted me to change my home page. I have no reason to make Incredimail's site my home page so I ticked no and guess what, it changed it anyway. Naughty Incredimail!

I use Snagit, a wonderful screen capture program that is so much more than just a screen capture. Snagit isn't free. But Snagit wants me to use Internet Explorer.  If there is an update, it takes me to their site always using IE.  I don't use IE. I use Firefox. It really ticks me off when a browser opens that is not my default browser unless I choose to open it.

I don't want every program on my computer to run at Startup.  But most times I don't get to choose.  After the program installs I have to first check to see if there is a way to disable that by looking at 'Options' (if there are any) and usually there is no option to stop it loading at startup.  So I have to go to msconfig and disable the program from loading at start up there. Why every program writer seems to think I want my computer to be bogged down by programs running in the background, I don't know.

There a lot more of these misbehaving programs out there, I am sure.

I'm not the only one who feels this way!  'Legal Software More Annoying then Most Viruses'

Martha

2 comments:

Peter - Snagit Guide said...

With Snagit you can always download your upgrade through firefox. Just go to the download site and download the latest version with firefox.

mamccb said...

I am totally aware of that and that's what I do. My point is, I shouldn't have to do that as my default browser should open, not IE.

Martha