New
#10
Nice work Chrome - other browsers could and should do better. No wonder its one of the most popular browsers
Nice work Chrome - other browsers could and should do better. No wonder its one of the most popular browsers
Curious. Maybe it was Unchecky that kept misbegotten Chrome off my computer, despite the installer not visibly offering it. Normally, I will get a pop-up informing me Unchecky has blocked something but I didn't this time.
Unchecky loads at boot, runs in the background, and has a very light footprint. You'll never know it's there except when it does its job and blocks a PUP.
Actually, I think it is the most prevalent (not necessarily popular) browser because of Google's practice of paying software companies (Adobe Flash installer is probably the most prevalent) to include a PUP in their software installers that tries to sneak Chrome (and, usually, the Google Tool Bar) onto people's computers, where it then sets itself up as the default browser. The average (and most numerous) computer users don't know how to avoid it, don't know how to get rid of it once they get stuck with it, and don't even know they can get rid of it (or why) so, once it gets stuck onto their computers, they just live with it.
Propagating Chrome via PUPs is a despicable practice and is one of the three reasons I don't like it (the other two are Google is too darned nosy and Chrome's cookie handling is vastly inferior to IE).
I've never had Chrome install onto a system when I didn't mean it too. The reason people end up with an unintended Chrome installation is because they can't be bothered reading what's in front of them on the screen properly. There isn't any trickery involved, as much as people want it to be, in order to to save face.
Modern society is all about a lack of responsibility - it's easy just to blame someone else for misfortune, instead of holding oneself accountable. You see it here too - aka "Chrome sneaked on my system", "I was forced to install Windows 10" etc. etc. etc. take your pick.
Watch out for CCleaner - it got hijacked about a month or two ago:
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3225...d-malware.html
Even though it hasn't happened to you (and I no reason to doubt you), that doesn't mean it hasn't happened to others. Take Jack, for example. He's smarter than the averagebearuser and knows far more than most of us (he didn't get all that rep just by being cute and cuddly) yet even he got bit.
I had Chrome and Google Toolbar sneak onto my computer once, even though I was using an advanced installation setting on a program I was installing and saw no option to not install it (I was looking for it so, if the opt out was there, I would have seen it). I haven't been bit since I installed Unchecky.
Not everyone has the aptitude to understand computers, same as not everyone has the aptitude to be a doctor, a lawyer, or an auto mechanic. Keep in mind most computer users are not as knowledgeable about computers as most of us are and are easily fooled by deceptive practices that most of us can see right through. What seems obvious to geeks is not obvious to most people. The GWX campaign had the most deceptive series of attempts to trick people to download and install an unwanted program or OS just barely short of virus infections. It was buried in security updates and the popups it generated were often very misleading, the worst being the one that gave no option to opt out and, if you clicked on the X in the upper right corner of the popup, which pretty much everyone would assume would just close the popup, it would trigger the install. Even experts were often fooled by one attempt or another. MS even later admitted the GWX campaign was a huge mistake.
Not to mention the almost unbelievable situation where Google Chrome and Google Toolbar are bundled and ticked to install by default ("Recommended" lol) with the motherboard driver discs from Gigabyte.
I have 2 Gigabyte motherboards, one bought in 2015 (H81M-PLUS) and the other bought earlier this year (B250M-D3H) and both boards' driver discs have Chrome and Toolbar so they've been doing it for at least 2 years.