New
#1
Minitool Partition Wizard FREE now secretly installs Web Companion!
Can't believe this. Minitool started this discraceful process back with Partition Wizard Free version 10, and promised me (when I complained) that they were going to remove it with the new version 11 being released at the start of 2019.
Well, it's now the start of 2019, and version 11 of Partition Wizard FREE is now released. And they HAVE NOT CHANGED ANYTHING!
What they do with the free version during the installation dialog is give you an opportunity to set the checkbox to OPT-OUT of the installation of AVAST (which is pre-checked ON so that it WILL be installed by default unless you un-check it). There actually is a page in the dialog advising you that AVAST is going to be installed unless you opt-out.
What is NOT TOLD TO YOU is that SECRETLY a product named Web Companion by Lavasoft WILL ALWAYS BE INSTALLED, because you are installing Partition Wizard FREE!! This is browser hackware which takes over your home page and browser search engine settings.
WHAT AN OUTRAGE!!! Absolutely should disqualify Minitool's otherwise excellent and long used product for managing disk drives and partitions from being recommended in the future... at least in its free packaging.
The non-free Pro version is priced at $39 for a lifetime usage license, with a right to get any version upgrades which are released within 1 year of purchase. Or, you can instead opt to pay $59 for a lifetime usage license, along with a lifetime free upgrade to any new versions released in the future. So this pricing is not at all unreasonable for a very very fine product that I myself have used forever, and consider it one of my standard cannot-live-without-it set of tools (along with non-free Macrium Reflect Home Edition and NovaBACKUP PC).
But slipping this sneaky secret install of a hack to your browser for a piece of software you are not alerted to or provided an opt-out from (as at least you are for AVAST)... this should be criminal in today's world. You can of course then go to Control Panel and immediately uninstall it (and have the unintall restore your browser home page and your browser default search engine settings), but if you didn't know that until the first time you used your browser after installing Partition Wizard FREE I'm sure you'd be very very annoyed.
So... you've been warned.
I have emailed Minitool to protest as adamantly as I could while still remaining civil. I urge others to do the same, so that maybe they will get the point that their folly will not serve them well. This is not nagware to get you to buy their non-free software version. This is hackware that secretly gets installed with no opt-out and overtakes your browser and requires you to then uninstall it once you see that it's now present.
Disgraceful.