![]() ![]() Even the vendors that bundle their own toolbars don’t want a wrapper with its own bundles that precedes theirs. Other vendors will feel the same, trust me. I no longer can direct users to until they change this policy. CNET used to have a policy against listing programs with bundles. Other download sites do this, and I’ve always considered them ‘rogue’. Despite what they may say about more statistics, there is only one reason they added it - to throw in bundles (BING Toolbar right now). To say I was unhappy to discover that they had made this change is an understatement. I was using them as a mirror, as they kept the product up to date and were reliable. Since Bitsum Techologies is staunchly ANTI-BUNDLE, I was *shocked* when I saw that CNET had made this change. I got the ASK toolbar again and it requires a special anti-malware software tool to get rid of it. Your new junk (and infected machine) comes to you from CNET, without any choices. Given that this is software that is being advertised by CNET during the DOWNLOAD PROCESS – right there in the window of their own special download tool (and you can’t get anything from them without that tool) this means there is no chance at all that it is coincidental – that the stuff you get installed with no “opt out”, came to you inside of the software companies install file. This incarnation of the CNET downloader goes on to download and install software on your PC without a direct warning (except for what appear to users to be “banners ads”) and with no “OPT OUT” choices. I got 4 pieces of extra software, only one had an “opt out”, and the ones I had no choice about getting contained two virus programs. What you do not know is that they intend on putting that software on your machine without asking you. Have you encountered the CNET Installer? What's your opinion?įAR worse than that – the CNET download tool now also (it seems so innocent when you see it happening) sending (what look like) advertisements during the file transfer as you wait for your file. Good alternatives are Softpedia and Major Geeks. It might make sense to use a different download portal in the future, especially if you do not want to download the 400 Kilobyte web installer every time you download a file from the download site. ![]() Users who do not pay attention to the download process will install the Babylon Toolbar, make Babylon their default search engine and homepage of their browsers.Ĭnet is without doubt generating lots of revenue from the web installer, considering that the toolbar installation options are enabled by default, and that most users click Next Next Next when it comes to installation processes. The real problem here however is that the web installer is pushing the Babylon toolbar. This in itself is problematic as it means that users need to run the installer first to download the setup file of the software that they initially wanted to download. ![]() Instead, a web downloader, called CNET installer, is provided. Cnet, at least for this download and probably for all downloads on the site, is not offering direct links to those setup files anymore. I first thought that the developers of CureIt had provided the installer, turned out I was wrong. Instead of allowing me to download the setup file directly, a 400 Kilobyte web installer was downloaded. I never had problems with downloads on Cnet before, but this one got me puzzled at first. Today I wanted to download Dr.Web CureIt and the first site that came up in Google Search was Cnet's. I also try to use download portals if the developer site does not offer direct downloads, for instance by forcing users to register or fill out a web form before downloads become available. ![]()
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