I should have known better but how hard could the task really be?\u00a0 Download some free or open source software from the internet, configure it, and presto I then have all of the tools necessary for my “homework” assignment.<\/p>\n
The task was to create a small restful server and a small client application to make a number of calls to this server.\u00a0 I think that one of the other preconditions was that the resulting program also used something from the SDK installation. I really cannot remember all of the details other than don’t rush.<\/p>\n
I wanted to get the program done in the next week and had some quiet time on Sunday to get everything installed and setup.\u00a0 Instead of getting a working environment I ended up getting a crapware installed environment that was doing an amazing job of hijacking\u00a0all of\u00a0my web browsers.<\/p>\n
I was lucky that my friend Mikhail was able to Lets be honest, I didn’t pay enough attention when installing each of these packages.\u00a0 Who hasn’t downloaded and installed some viewer or other tool to see that the vendor has teamed up with a anti-virus company.\u00a0 If not that then some vendor also includes a must have “tool bar” for your browser despite the fact I have gotten along quite nicely without their offering.<\/p>\n It must have been one of those types of packages that installed this extra special payload.\u00a0 I downloaded both software from both very respectable firms as well as a download site or two.\u00a0 I think that mainly that is where by problems began.<\/p>\n Nobody with an ounce of business acumen will advertise that they are providing goods or services that you don’t want and probably would never want.\u00a0 Not only don’t you want it but the odds are it will have negative effects.\u00a0 I guess software bundles sounds much nicer.<\/p>\n This isn’t really new, computer companies have been bundling their own software, utilities and other third party software.\u00a0 The companies call it bundling while some of the users and media call that particular solution bloatware [0].\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0I have always wondered why companies would exchange a few dollars per machine when eventually what they were doing\u00a0would give them a negative image.<\/p>\n This type of behavior has taken some of the fun out of computers.\u00a0 Now you need to have virus checkers and malware checkers just to turn on the computer.\u00a0 It might be a bit paranoid but testing out unknown software should probably be now be done in a virtual machine.<\/p>\n The same would be true when receiving any emails with attachments from people you don’t know.\u00a0 This can be true for people you do know but where the content appears suspicious compared to previous correspondence (sorry mom).<\/p>\n This level of paranoia is certainly not within the ability\/effort of the casual computer person and so the bundler’s win.<\/p>\n In the situation where download sites are injecting extra software [1]<\/a> [2]<\/a>[3]<\/a> [4]<\/a> the only real solution is to get the software from the projects own website. \u00a0This works well for the big projects\u00a0that have their own sites such as Firefox<\/a>, Gimp<\/a>, VLC <\/a>just to name a few.<\/p>\n This isn’t the only possible solution, although it is probably the easiest one. \u00a0In the last few years computers have not gotten that much more powerful but their cost and the cost of disks and ram have come even further down in price. \u00a0My next article will be about using software to create a virtual computers for testing software or risky web sites.<\/p>\n [0]\u00a0http:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/article\/2890512\/bloatware-free-windows-computers.html<\/a><\/p>\n [1] http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/198622\/heres-what-happens-when-you-install-the-top-10-download.com-apps\/<\/a><\/p>\n [2] http:\/\/www.hanselman.com\/blog\/DownloadWrappersAndUnwantedSoftwareArePureEvil.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n [3] https:\/\/dottech.org\/23420\/cnet-crapware\/<\/a><\/p>\n [4] http:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/207692\/yes-every-freeware-download-site-is-serving-crapware-heres-the-proof\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I should have known better but how hard could the task really be?\u00a0 Download some free or open source software from the internet, configure it, and presto I then have all of the tools necessary for my “homework” assignment. The … Continue reading decrap<\/del> remove the malware so I didn’t need to reinstall windows.\u00a0 I didn’t want to reinstall windows as the big M makes some simplifying assumptions about how many operating systems will be on the newly installed computer.<\/p>\nsoftware bundles<\/h2>\n
The solution<\/h2>\n
References<\/h2>\n