When You Download From Microsoft Download Center…Be Careful
It’s bad enough when developers stick PUPs and other garbage into their installers, or when sites like Tucows, CNet, Softonic and others take software belonging to someone else, bundle it with their own malware and PUPs and distribute it, but when big successful and rich companies like Sun Java and Adobe bundle their software with the likes of the absolutely terrible and worthless Ask Toolbar or McAfee’s awful virus scanner, you start wondering who you can trust if you can’t trust American icons like Adobe and Java.
But you’d think that the company that made the operating system you’re probably using would be a company you could trust. Why would Microsoft need to attempt to bundle anything? They make billions of dollars in profits every year. So you trust Microsoft when you go their download center to download one their products that the download will be free from trickery and from software that will change your browser’s settings.
Yesterday I was doing a session for Cloudeight Direct and I needed to download the free Power Point Viewer from Microsoft. So I got to the download center, click on the big download button and what to my bloodshot eyes did appear? Microsoft “recommends” Bing and MSN homepage. It “recommends” them by pre-checking the box so when I download anything from the Download Center and forget to uncheck that box my browser’s homepage will be MSN and my search provider will be Bing..That’s right, that’s what will happen if you are not paying attention, after you download from Microsoft Download Center. It’s fine if you really want MSN as your home page and Bing as your search engine. Even then though, you should make that choice, not have Microsoft recommending them by checking the box for you (and probably hoping you don’t notice). If I wanted MSN and Bing, I’d already have them – they’re not hard to find.
Above: Note that Microsoft has the box to change your home page and your default search provider pre-checked. If you proceed with the download, your browser homepage will be MSN and your browser’s default search provider will be Bing.
So maybe Microsoft’s losing the battle with Google, so what? To me it just looks bad if they think they can beat Google by using questionable methods. It would seem to me the right way to best your competition is by making better products. If Bing was better than Google then it would be doing better than Google – word gets around. You don’t need to shove something people want down their throats – they’ll gladly make the changes on their own.
Whether or not the programs or changes that are made are benign or not, I don’t agree with trickery to get people to change something they may not want changed. It seems to me that Microsoft has joined the growing list of companies who use the trickery of the checked box to install or change things on peoples’ computers without their explicit permission. These companies know as well as we do, that people are often in a hurry when installing things and don’t read every dialog or uncheck boxes that are pre-checked. This method is not just used to install malicious software, it’s used to make changes and install things people may not be aware of. Just because you clicked download and didn’t uncheck a box does not imply that you approve of what’s being changed or installed. Respectable companies should stop imitating the pond scum companies who install malware and worse on your computer when you’re not looking.
Using trickery to get users to install software or to make changes to their browser they may not want should never be an acceptable way of doing business. It’s a shame that Microsoft has decided to join the likes of Adobe, Java, and others who use the trickery of the pre-checked box to make changes to or install software on users’ computers.
Thanks for the heads up.
” It would seem to me the right way to best your competition is by making better products.” Your words.
I would have trusted Microsoft – but I’ll sure be aware now.
Thanks again.
I’ve noticed this for a while now. I now read everything word for word, line by line.
I thought I trusted Microsoft and this week I have got into so much trouble I restored my computer and in trying to do things they said I needed windows 8.1 and IE 11 now I am so disguisted I am about ready to give up all my favorites are gone and I can ony get into mail and face book with ease
This is a whole other animal. You need to download and install Windows 8.1 if you’re using Windows 8. If you don’t you won’t get any security updates or patches. This doesn’t have anything to do with installing Bing/Bingbar on your computer without your explicit consent.
Good article, and timely . The same will go for the store app in 8.1, just tried to get the older version of solitary and got over a dozen other things that i did not wont and don’t even know how to remove them.
New computer for my wife’s birthday and she loves solitary, but the older version did not come on 8.1 and at this time no way to get it on 8.1 with out all the other crap.. Less than a week old and it has fits of flashing and screen jumping back to the app page, She is not happy, and i am very disappointed in Microsoft.
Will stick with Win 7 for now and move to Apple with a new computer in the future, just tired of Microsoft’s crap !!!
BOO! Can’t trust anyone these days except you guys!
It’s why I like Unchecky
I’ve been had …..A few months ago when attempting to go to Google, suddenly MSN and Bing are coming up first. Yes I can delete them and eventually get to Google, but why do I have to go through that process, when all I wanted in the first place was Google.??? Obviously I didn’t see or notice that there was a check mark in a box. MY error or oversite.
The Question now is, how do I delete MSN and Bing from being a pain in that part of my anatomy and make me have to go to all the trouble of deleting them just so I can go to Google.? Oh I know some people are going to say pitty BUT………
And an other question if I may. can you please put “SPELL CHECK” on here so that those of us that have been known to hit the wrong key OR worst, still can’t spell correctly and don’t look like a dummy ?.
Arnie in Nova Scotia
I always uncheck everything I don’t want before I download…but sometimes mysteriously I get it anyway….
computers are a love…hate….relationship….by the way…learned a lot thru your tips and tricks….thanks….
Thank you for this tip. I tried to to watch for bad stuff, why are they so sneakeeeeeeee.
Thank you again!
Jean
I learned to really check for that ever since you tipped us off about that before and thank you for all you and EB do for us!
Sadly, it’s all about the money. That’s how they become big, rich companies.
Well – after all these years I’ve been with and trusted you, it appears you can no longer be trusted.
The information in the article is wrong – PERIOD.
I guess you also can’t stand being proven wrong. Readers need to be made aware of ALL things not acceptable regardless of origin.
Well I checked it out and Mine were not checked and there was a button to the right of your screen shot that said no thanks. Just click on it.. However there was at one time when no matter what you did you got the bing browser from Microsoft and tool bar not the case anymore. I took them off needless to say. And you can uninstall them. I would love to see if the PPViewer will work I have downloaded on numerous occasions to my win 7 and never would work. I hope this one will. WHAT you say about Adobe is correct but gee whiz people how much does take to uncheck the box??????!!!! Just look the stuff over before you click on it. I just uncheck it in adobe for McAfee and Java’s one but you do have to watch them for a long time CCleaner had one too but hasn’t been there as of late. They seemed to have quit doing that when they reformatted their interface so it could be they have new owners I don’t know but they don’t have that as a question anymore. You can check anything you didn’t want was the way they have it before downloading. I have been downloading free programs for years and they have always had those options of free things. When Bing came out and the Bing Toolbar and you would go to Microsoft it was nearly impossible not to have them over take your computer NOT so anymore. However even with Microsoft they now only make it available And they didn’t have anything checked but your first thought is wow I have to choose one of these until you look down in the right hand corner where it says “No Thanks” then Next. and doesn’t get on your machine as it did at one time even if you said no it would get on once again it doesn’t now.. Just did it and just checked it out and it didn’t over take any of my browsers and it didn’t put on a bing tool bar. But again you can uncheck anything and go to next and not get the stupid stuff put on your machine. Thought you might want to know. Thanks.. Connie
It is checked by default – I had 3 others check it and I checked it again. There was never a time when anything you downloaded came with Bing. There was a time when Bingbar was distributed via Windows updates however so if you had “Give me recommended updates…” checked you got Bingbar. This, however is not longer true.
The crux of the matter is not that they give you a way to opt out, almost all malware installers give you that option. If you were borrowing money from a bank and they had optional insurance on the loan and didn’t tall you about it, however on the last page of the long agreement there was a box that was checked that said “I agree to pay $4.76 monthly for insurance on this load” buried in fine print, then, according to what you say above, you would think that was good business practice, right?
I disagree Connie. No company should try to sneak something on your system – whether it be malware or Bing without your explicit consent. Explicit meaning you checked the box after being presented with that option. Just like most contracts have fine print that few people read, most installers include other software that comes pre-checked. The difference between the two is that over the years laws have evolved to protect consumers from hidden clauses in contracts; there a no such laws protecting Internet users who download software.
Sure, it’s easy to say – all you have to do is look. But many don’t. And companies, even Microsoft, know this and take advantage of it.
Another point you make is that you can remove Bing/Bingbar. That is not germane. Whether it’s malware which is difficult to remove or Bing which is easier to remove, a user should not have to spend time getting rid of something he didn’t explicitly agree to installing in the first place.
NO I did NOT mean to infer in anyway that I thought that was good or great practice.. I think it is completely unethical and should be made against the law…However I had someone show me what the download was… but it was from Canada and not the USA. And the Canadian version nothing is checked. So today I checked out the one from the USA and indeed the box is prechecked for you..not so from the one from Canada. But I don’t know how you got it that I thought it was ever ok for anyone to take over someones computer with crap like that or the fine print I DO NOT never did! but we need to be very watchful when we download things be it from Microsoft or Java, or Adobe or whomever we are getting our download from that we are not getting extra stuff on our computers that we don’t want.
By the way along those lines I have a question.. Whenever I update my Microsoft stuff then I get a pop up to download an update for Office Starter … I did that one time and they shut it down they were never suppose to do that so I had to get it fixed right away. That was a year or so ago. Nothing seems to stop the pop up like an anti malware etc program. In time it will leave, but the next time Microsoft updates I still get the pop up.. All I have been able to find is it does come from Microsoft but if that is the case why isn’t in their regular downloads? Clearly from my experience it is a piece of Mal ware do you know anything at all about this? Just wondering.
But NO I think it is very unethical of anyone to come in and try and take over a computer or put unwanted programs on it or in the fine print want to charge you money.. That is totally wrong.. I am just saying you have to be diligent and watch them ALL. You can at least unchecked it but my question is why do they have them checked by default in the first place? Well clearly hoping people will miss and get the crap on their computers. . Clearly Canada doesn’t have the same issue and likely other parts of the world don’t either. I think our congress and president ought to make sure that we are safe from that too and make it against the law to do it. That is what I think. Again I just went over what I wrote and do not see where I ever say I think it is right.. I don’t sorry I gave that impression of course hard to proof read your own things.. because at least with me my mind sees what I am thinking not clearly what you wrote. But Anyway I wrote that after I saw one from Canada not the same offerings looks like the exact same web page but clearly theirs is unchecked. Much safer than the one in the USA. But I really I don’t agree with that kind of behavior at all, and never have. So sorry you thought I did.