http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/8219424/Crapware-won-t-crap-out
'Crapware' won't crap out
InstallMonetizer.com
InstallMonetizer helps crapware makers get their stuff on your computer.
crapware may never, ever die.
There are two main problems with crapware. First, it's deceptive, and the underhandedness associated with preinstalled and secretly installed software makes people suspicious about computers - and that goes against the long-term interests of everyone in the tech industry.
Second, crapware devotes system resources to stuff you don't need. Sometimes this slows down your computer, sometimes it invades your privacy, and other times it's just annoying, adding extra steps to your daily computing tasks.
Take, for instance, the Ask toolbar. As Ben Edelman, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, documented last week, this browser plug-in is unbelievably annoying. It loads itself into your browser - IE, Chrome, or Firefox - and then makes Ask.com or its sister site, MyWebSearch, your default search engine. Then, anytime you do a search, you're presented with a page of results that consists almost entirely of advertising. Edelman writes:
The volume of advertisements is remarkable. On a 800x600 monitor, the entire first two screens of Mywebsearch results presented advertisements - four large ads with a total of seven additional miniature ads contained within. The first algorithmic search result appears on the third on-screen page, where users are far less likely to see it. At Ask.com, ads are even larger: fully seven advertisements appear above the first algorithmic result, and three more ads appear at page bottom - more than filling two 800x600 screens.
No one would ever install such a terrible toolbar by choice. But Ask doesn't need you to install its stuff; instead it pays lots of companies to help squirrel the toolbar into your machine. As tech journalist Ed Bott reported last week, one of those firms is Oracle, whose own browser plug-in, Java, has been plagued by lots of security holes lately.
You should disable Java, but if you don't, you should at least update it - and when you do, you'll notice that its security upgrade installer prechecks a box that installs Ask into your browser. Or, more likely, you won't notice that because you'll be rushing to click through the installer.
And say you get suspicious and decide to check Windows' list of recently installed programs to see if anything unwanted was added to your system? As Bott documented, the Ask toolbar does something clever - it waits for 10 minutes after you install Java to install itself. The delay allows it to escape your immediate detection.
Google and Microsoft could easily inhibit crapware by altering Android and Windows licenses to prevent manufacturers and carriers from preinstalling the software. But I don't expect them to do so.
While crapware sucks for users, and while it doesn't help the images of Android and Windows in the long run, it's good for Microsoft and Google in the short run. The money that device makers get from crapware makers lowers the price of Windows and Android devices, which in turn boosts their market share. Plus, Microsoft has found a way to make money from junkware - if you take your computer to a Microsoft Store and pay $99, the company will remove all the junk for you.
See? Crapware pays! That's why it will never die.