Installing iTunes 7.7 Also Installs MobileMe Control Panel Applet On Windows Machines Without Your Permission….. WTF?
Didn’t Apple learn anything the last time they tried something like this?
I installed iTunes 7.7 on my Windows box at work a week ago. But today I noticed this in Control Panel:
It seems that iTunes 7.7 has steath installed a control panel applet for MobileMe. Open it and this is what you get:
Apparently, Apple wants to jack up its user base for MobileMe by installing it onto Windows machines without telling them first and hope they’ll sign up for a 60 day trial. At least when they tried that stunt with Safari they warned people that they were going to do that and the Apple Software Update application gave you the option of not installing it (which most people didn’t notice which is how Safari’s marketshare jumped shortly thereafter). This time they didn’t give you that option nor do that tell you that they are installing a MobileMe control panel.
Needless to say I was not impressed. I wonder how Apple justifies this.
July 18, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Don’t like it? Don’t install iTunes. Pretty simple, really.
July 18, 2008 at 6:51 pm
If you have an iPod, iTunes still is the best option on Windows, as it is not a standard USB device. I run a Mac now, but I’m pretty disgusted with what I refer to on my blog (shameless plug) as “malware” behavior by Apple on the Windows platform.
July 18, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Not to mention that if you have a 3G iPhone, iTunes 7.7 is your only option if you want to get music on it.
July 19, 2008 at 12:17 am
Wow… just checked my control panel, and surprise surprise; MobileMe is there…. I will be uninstalling not only MobileMe, but also iTunes, Safari, and QuickTime. As much as I hate Vista, I am slowly beginning to hate Apple more, at least Windows is overly concerned about making sure you know about EVERYTHING that is going on with it – whereas Apple just does whatever the hell it wants without telling you.
July 19, 2008 at 8:51 am
To the geniuses that say “don’t install iTunes” – great! I never wanted to anyway, but it magically came with a QuickTime update. And the lat dozen times the “QuickTime + iTunes” update popped up, it tried to get me to install Safari, too. Now instead of even stating somewhere that this will install MobileMe, it simply does so without telling you.
I’m sure it’s iTunes-related software, but is it absolutely-required software for general iTunes use? As far as I can figure – it’s not. Ergo: do not bloody install this without asking me if you can.
Next up: Google Desktop is ‘related to’ iTunes and gets installed without so much as a bother as well.
If you don’t see what is wrong with this practice, then by jove I hope your machine gets completely filled up with the hundreds of wonderful little tools that various companies would like to push on you when doing an update of some remotely ‘related’ software .. and chokes on it.
July 19, 2008 at 10:07 pm
You probably agreed to have it installed when you agreed to the TOS.
July 20, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Hey Rick! It’s the “genius” here… I tell you what. Un-install Quicktime, iTunes, and Safari. Then, sell your iPhone, Touch, or iPod. Get a Zune and and a Windows Mobile based phone/PDA and most importantly… STFU.
July 21, 2008 at 11:01 am
Alex: would that be the TOS that’s hidden away somewhere?
X Man: sorry, no, I’m a Linux man – but I guess if you want to label me a Microsoft fanboy in some odd misguided effort to detract from the point I’m making, then you should try harder 🙂
This isn’t about being anti-Apple (so I’ll keep my iPod, thanks) – this is about being anti-particular methods. In this case, it’s Apple using those methods; does that fact mean I’m not allowed to talk about it – only if it’s another company? What does type of attitude make you?
But if it makes you feel any better – I did uninstall iTunes, re-installed QuickTime (sans iTunes) oh and Safari never made it onto that Windows box simple because I take great care to read the Apple software updater these days and uncheck everything I don’t want. Hence the grumbling, not just by me as is obvious by this blog post, when there was no mention anywhere in the updater that this would be installing an additional, optional, service for no particularly good reason.
July 23, 2008 at 12:15 pm
This is like a Trojan horse, without the damage, as far as I know. Piggy backs on the code of other software without your knowledge (Root kit?).
Why is apple stooping to the levels of sleazy software vendors, by sneaking software on an install? I thought they were a reputable company? I like iTunes and quicktime but installing software without notifying the user… that is just plain dumb.
So apple wants to promote the service, give me 5 free iTunes songs with a 60 day trial of MobleMe? How about giving me a a one year subscription to Moblile Me with the purchase of an iPhone or a iTouch?
Promote it by showing me how effective it is not by planting a sleeper bug, that I had no idea it was there and don’t know what it does, on my system. Don’t be sneaky like this. Doing this makes me do a double take on other apple software, something that I am going to start doing from now on.
I’m not a mac, Win or Linux guy; i love em all, but shit like this plain old gets me wound up and makes Apple look like a company with two faces. on one hand you have a good company that makes beautiful software and hardware, on on the other you have the “yea I do software like a hacker, by embedding code with out you knowing it”.
August 4, 2008 at 12:22 am
One more thing 😉
Since iTunes 7.6 I got a weird behavior with MS Outlook: it just won’t quit after quitting. The advice was to check for any program preventing Outlook from quitting so I checked Outlook COM Add-Ins. Guess what’s there? Yep. Itunes Outlook Add-in doing I don’t know what. Removed it and ta-ta Outlook as smooth as it’s supposed to be. What’s wrong with these guys?
August 17, 2008 at 4:04 pm
odd, as when i installed the latest version of itunes i got asked what i was installing…and if i wanted to install mobileme and other guff, maybe i just read the instructions, or maybe they changed it?
August 19, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Sleazy. Period.
September 9, 2008 at 12:34 pm
God, reading X Man’s posts just pissed me off enough to write on here. No one wants crappy software being installed alongside stuff they do want installed. I find Apple’s software quite intrusive as it is, and yes I have an iPod from a couple years back which I use iTunes to sync to and was equally unimpressed when I found that crappy control panel addition.
And to Alex, iTunes seems to want to update every second day in the last couple of weeks, I must have flicked through so many TOS that Apple’s parp is coming out of my ears.
J
August 15, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Having software installed on your computer without your approval is the loose equivalent of taking your car in to an auto shop to get a routine check up and then picking it up later and finding out the mechanics charged $500 for a “special protective paint coating” without even asking for your approval. Granted you’re not losing any money by installing MobileMe, but it’s still a similar scenario. Since when was it okay to let people (corporations included) to step all over you?
February 21, 2010 at 3:53 am
just another reason (along with always trying to install Safari and ‘Bonjour’) that I uninstalled ITunes. Winamp is much better (and straight up ASKS if you want to install Emusic, then never bothers you about it again)