A common complaint that people have when they buy PC’s is “it comes with all this junk that I’ll never use and never asked for.” The junk they are referring to is “Crapware” which can be best described as the software that computer companies load onto home PC’s. They are typically trial versions of applications or simply stripped down versions of their normal applications. There is a small percentage of this stuff that is useful, but most of it sucks and most users want it off their computers as quickly as possible (usually by doing so, they gain a ton of disk space back). Why do computer companies do this? Simple. The profit on that shiny new computer that you bought is 4% or less for whoever built it. They need to make money somehow so shoving useless software onto your computer is a quick and easy way to do it as software companies pay computer companies to put this crap on your computer.
Sure you can uninstall that stuff one application at a time, but that’s a time consuming process and you sometimes miss stuff. So how do you remove this stuff once and for all in the easiest manner possible?
For this task, I use a tool called The PC Decrapifier to remove this stuff from people’s computers. It works with Windows XP and Windows Vista and removes a lengthy list of software that is typically installed on consumer PC’s as well as web browser addins and Internet Explorer home and search pages that track back to places that you won’t usually go to. It works well and results in a PC that you’ll like a lot more. The software is free for personal use, but the author has a $5 “personal use subscription” which is basically a donation, and a $20 “commercial use subscription” for Nerds like me. I highly recommend this to anyone who is sick of the crap that comes with a new computer.
If You Use Digsby As Your IM Client, You Might Want To Consider Switching
Posted in Commentary with tags Crapware, Privacy on August 14, 2009 by itnerdWhy? According to LifeHacker, this popular instant messaging client has a dark side to it:
Digsby takes bundled crapware to a whole different level, however. During the install you are prompted for not one, not two, but six different pieces of junk software, and then for good measure they offer to replace your home page with something terrible and take your search engine down a notch.
and:
You can debate the merits of bundled crapware, and brush away the despicable nature of preying on those lacking adequate tech skills, but did you realize that Digsby is also using your processor to make money?
That’s right. Buried in the Terms of Service that almost nobody ever bothers reading, there’s this exploiting-the-fine-print gem explaining that they will use your CPU to run distributed computing problems that make them money
That’s just craptastic. Though you can turn of the CPU hogging feature. The “off switch” is located behind the “Support Digsby” menu item.
Now to be fair, Digsby has responded to this by putting out a new build of their product that makes this more clear:
We are pushing out a release later today that will include the following changes:
We want to make it completely clear to all users so Digsby is not doing anything you don’t want it to do. The above changes have been on our to do list but the article really opened our eyes about how few people know about this functionality. Our goal is to create the world’s best IM client and social media tool. The only way to accomplish that goal is with transparency and communication so we can keep working with you to make a better product.
That’s great. But if you did that in the first place and let the user choose to opt-in, you wouldn’t have to do damage control now.
So if you’re ticked about this and want a IM client that isn’t made by Yahoo or Microsoft, what do you do? I can recommend two things.
First is Miranda (Windows only). It’s incredibly lightweight, uses the default Windows UI, and has an incredibly active plugin community. Then there’s Pidgin (multiplatform) which is also an excellent IM which is also very extensible. Best of all, they’re free and offer no added crap.
When companies thing they can just exploit their users for their own game, and then make good when they get caught doing it, the best thing to do is to switch to someone who won’t do that to you. That my friends is the only way they’ll learn not to be so dumb.
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