I probably sound a bit gruff, but I've lost a great deal of idealism, tending to focus on what's practical. Simply put, you play the hand you're dealt.
RE: Aimersoft DRM Media Converter, that was a bit of a nasty install routine -- I wouldn't expect problems but if it didn't install & work properly I wouldn't be surprised either. Personally I felt that the real costs of installation outweighed any prospective benefit, so I never added it to my regular Windows setup, but that's me. It's also kind of moot when discussing the GOTD setup.exe file etc. because the email you should have received with your registration code included a link to the program's setup file, bypassing the GOTD app entirely.
GOTD probably isn't going to change the way their offers work -- they've got a fair amount of work & money invested in their setup, & few if any alternatives that would avoid the problems of the past, when the actual installation or setup app could be easily grabbed from the temp folder. Loads of people liked it that way, except for the companies providing the offers -- it made software you'd normally pay for perpetually free. If there was such a thing as a honor system, it failed. We've all read loads of complaints -- I've not seen an alternative solution proposed. GOTD is what it is.
There are a few things that can prevent the GOTD setup.exe from working as it should -- I'm only talking about security software because I think that's come up often as a cause. The easiest way I know of to find out if security software is interfering is to turn it off & see if that works. If you try that [disabling security software] & the GOTD doesn't work, then obviously that's not the problem. Sometimes that means turning it off in Safe Mode -- with BitDefender I can't set its services to manual or disabled unless I am in Safe Mode, & then I usually boot into Windows normally to verify. If you want to try that, & determine your security software is at fault, then of course the choice is yours on what to do next. I'm not the one to say which brand of security software's best/worse -- I use BitDefender based on ratings, price paid, & frankly because that's the one my wife disliked least on her PC.
Security software might update several times a day -- what's happening most often is it's downloading new data on what to look for. That's one reason why anti-virus might trigger on a GOTD one day & not the next, or the opposite. It also probably varies based on what gets unpacked by GOTD's setup.exe into memory. Anti-virus software works by matching hard coded patterns of code &/or behaviors. Mal-ware developers are just as practical as regular software developers, & neither wants to re-invent the wheel -- both will re-use any available programming code & methods. If/when it detects a match that could be legitimate software, or not, anti-virus software can either let it slide or react -- when it reacts to legitimate software you get a false positive.
GOTD contacted the companies making & selling anti-virus software that was being triggered by GOTD software installs. Some apparently listened, others not. If you're feeling kind hearted those companies didn't want to potentially reduce their product's effectiveness, & there is some merit to that, e.g. exploits spoof everything else, so why not spoof a GOTD to make it through anti-virus protections. If you're not feeling quite so generous, some security software makers simply displayed the arrogance they're accustomed to. You are after all talking about an industry that was started in large part via false claims & scare mongering [see McAfee's history], & persists to this day using those same marketing techniques.
As far as security software goes, it's just like any other software, varying from fairly good to not fit to use. Most infections come from human error [people are often easily fooled], and these companies [most?] often find out about new exploits when their customers get infected with stuff their software did not block. On top of that, as the numbers of PC/laptop & smart phone/tablet users have increased, the number of people willing to go the extra mile for security has dwindled exponentially, to where the once common MD5 hashes & newer/better alternatives are almost unheard of nowadays. Companies selling security software know this, lowering the default level of protections to make their software less intrusive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5
Security software isn't nearly as effective as many companies would lead you to believe, while mal-ware can be more advanced than most people believe -- the next battleground is the UEFI Bios. In Windows no security apps are omnipotent -- that's one reason why there are so many encryption apps. And if that wasn't enough to worry about, government agencies have been involved writing standards & software & operating systems, in the building of communications infrastructure, and buy over the counter services from mercenaries expert in writing mal-ware &/or hacking. You can't count on everyone in government being honest. The world can be a nasty, scary place, & nothing you do can ever prevent disaster 100% -- at best you can avoid it sometimes, and mitigate the damage when you can't. Vastly oversimplified, risk mgmt. is figuring out when the cost of prevention overcomes the cost of whatever you're trying to avoid, e.g. if it takes 1/2 hour to restore a backup, but you lose 3 hours a day trying to avoid restoring that backup, the cost of prevention might not be worth it.
The reason for diving into all that isn't to trash security software companies, or to voice any grievances, but to say that security software devs aren't gods, or anything remotely close to that. It's a crowded field because the money's good -- if there was one killer app, you wouldn't have near the amount of competition. In fact, I'm not aware of any other category of software where you can amass the number of negative reviews common with security software, and not have problems keeping the doors to the biz open. So yeah, it's a hassle trying out different brands of security software -- their roots are deep to prevent mal-ware from turning it off -- but there's really no other way to compare using different brands & products. Published tests & ratings might tell you how *relatively effective* a security suite is, but they can't tell you how well you'll like using it, or if you even can use it.
Now I won't & haven't said anyone should dump Kaspersky or anything else because it blocks GOTD apps, but it's less likely that security software will only have problems with the GOTD setup file & absolutely nothing else. Some people think false positives are great -- a sign that their software's working -- rather than a failure to discriminate, &/or often a failure to give the user a choice in the matter. Some people haven't checked out though a lot of brands of security software, and so have little or no idea how good or bad whatever they're using now is. And THAT's why I recommend comparisons so heavily.
What I do personally is based on no security software being bulletproof, as well as the realization that software can be abusive without being classified as mal-ware. Indeed I've had software that was harder to deal with than many mal-ware infections -- the way I look at it is if you get shot, the consequences are just as serious whether it was the good or bad guys that pulled the trigger. So I use VMs to check out most anything [not just GOTDs by any means] before I'll let it near my regular Windows installs. That too is not bullet proof, but over the years it's saved far more time & trouble than it's cost. Some would rather rely on virtualization or sandbox apps, where any changes are temporary unless you commit them -- using VMs it's much easier for me to track just what an app does, because there's not the usual collection of installed software to get in the way.
Using my VMs I've found Microsoft's Security Essentials & the free version of AVG work with the GOTD setup.exe & activate.exe just fine. I'm sure others work just as well, but those are what I've used -- I don't want a firewall for example running in my VMs. Sometimes I'll transfer an app from a VM without installation -- sometimes that won't work. Sometimes a GOTD will work with BitDefender Total Security in my regular Windows install, sometimes not, but since I go the full install route in my regular Windows with so few apps, it's no big deal to go the Safe Mode route once or twice a month, if that. But that's purely FWIW in case anyone wondered or asked -- the way I do it is definitely not for everyone.
