Do you trust Software that come bundled with toolbars or other junk?

Do you trust them and opt out of installation the toolbars and other bundled crap or you would rather not deal with such shady developers?

I personally have stopped using Shark007 Codecs and Puran Defrag because of the shady ways they try to make the installation of the toolbars as default and opting out can be a bit tricky if you are one of those hasty people who simply click next everytime.

I am carefuly, but I don't trust these developers anymore. I would rather pay for an app that does the same function and even probably better without the crapware

 

Yes, I don't mind if free software has toolbar embedded in installer as long as I can opt out during installation. I'm OK with this practice, if the software is good and this junkware can help it to stay free.

 

Depends if i benefit from such a toolbar although there are options to clearly opt out of them so at least they are not being installed without user knowledge.
Ive used puran defrag but i dont recall a toolbar being offered.
If there is a clear way of opting out of them then i see no harm in authors offering them as some people may find them useful.

 

As careful as I am, I still get nailed occasionally. I hate it.

 

Here is the Puran Junk with his updated Accept or Continue button! Nice little trick

 

@berryracer

Was that how it's presented to you by default? On mine, it is unchecked by default. Click on Skip Offer and then "Yes" when prompted.
The "Accept/Continue" button is for those who accept to install the toolbar.

 

no it was off by default (thank the lord) but then I needed 5 seconds to realize that button on the left (call me blind)

 

I normally don't "like" and therefore don't use softwares that come bundled with toolbars and the like

However i've made an exception when it comes to Avira AV,
reason being, Avira AV is quite simply the best antivirus i have used ( i am using it for the last 4 years, back when there were no toolbars)

when it was known that Avira would include some "junk" in their installer, i was a little upset, but i dug a little deeper for a solution.

I came across an informative post in Avira forums where the un-needed processes were listed, i made a list of these processes and set them to "Block" in both the Firewall and HIPS component of Comodo Firewall.

so essentially the un-needed junk is still in my PC, but they are blocked from execution and transmission of data.

I would agree that this is not the perfect solution, but hey i feel safe with Avira on my pc

 

Depends how much i like te software and what kind of alternatives are out there. However if somebody is trying to trick me then most likely i wont use it. If its a simple clearly presented offer (ex: foxit reader) then i dont mind at all. Developers need to make money but no deceit is tolerated.

 

Sometimes, if you can opt out easily, but in general, I tend to avoid such software...

 

I do trust a developer like Piriform that develops Ccleaner But I use the Slim build.

 

I usually don't mind having to pay some extra attention when I install such software. The problem arises if there is no way to opt out, in which case, I won't install it.

 

It depends on what they're bundling. If it's the ever-present Chrome offer, it's no big deal, even though it still annoyingly adds registry entries and such even if you say no. Weird crap I've never heard of or the Ask bar and I'd just prefer to see what other options are out there. Basically if I've seen it before and know the score, I'll continue on.

 

My view would be:

1) Such bundled software can, and often does, create significant new negative security/privacy issues and thus should NOT be approached in an opt-out fashion. It should either be pure opt-in or the user should be prompted to choose yes or no (and neither should be checked by default). This approach significantly reduces the possibility that the user would inadvertently install something undesirable/threatening.

2) At no time prior to the user making their decision should any bundled software functions be given a chance to execute. It is, sadly, not unusual for the main installer to extract the bundled software and its components and execute one of the bundled software components *before* the user has a chance to choose whether or not to install the bundled software. There have been cases where said bundled component phones home information about the software that is installed on the user's machine. There have also been cases where said bundled component retrieves new/updated functionality from the bundled software developer's site and thus can modify its own behavior. All before the user even sees an option to opt-out!

 

Deleted duplicate post.

 

I used Avira long ago - installed it using IE and it put the toolbar on IE, but when I switched to Chrome or Firefox, the toolbar didn't follow over, so could use those two browsers without that Avira toolbar.

 

I don't trust anything that comes with bundled crapware and always look for an open-source or other alternative.

 

I don't mind one bit. The developers have to try to make $ somehow, and if they're offering me a free program that benefits me, who am I to begrudge them making a living. I am not an auto-pilot installer and I actually, <gulp> read each screen when it's presented during install, so for me it's not an issue............ However, I do have a problem with nag screens, but not PUP's that are deselectable during the install process.

 

I agree with you - I really don't mind bundled software and toolbars when you can opt out of installing them.

On occasion I do end up with some bundled software installed because I mistakenly didn't opt out. But also, this does not worry me at all - it's not hard to uninstall unwanted software or toolbars.

 

i always find it hard to uninstall/remove unwanted programs (PUPs) and toolbars completely from the system
prevention is the best cure, so i try not to lett them install in the first place

 

I find it somewhat annoying and I prefer portable software, however if the software is really good, bundled optional crap won't stop me.

I was never fooled by these installers, when I'm installing things I pay attention to the details.

 

Second option, as long as it's optional i'm fine.

 

Yes I do, I usually wear my reading glasses when I install software...

 

No, bundling malware with software is not OK.

 

Malware and PUPs are two completely different things.