I'll come back to that first part in a minute, the second part is more important and we wouldn't want you to reflexively ignore this post because you disagree with me. I have a picture of the dialog that pops up in 2.0.4 when you check for updates within the program (either manually or automatically). Please highlight, describe or otherwise indicate the location of the three checkboxes on this dialog that allow me to opt out of getting my computer taken over by shovelware. Having a hard time doing that, are we? If you click yes on this dialog, there are no other pages, no wizard, it just updates and installs the default options, which include bloating up your machine with programs and browser addons, and changing your homepage and search options. It doesn't matter if it shouldn't install this crap silently. It does. Whoever is in charge of your updater development fucked up. It happens; man up, admit it, and stop blaming the users for your mistake. The sooner you do that, the sooner you can fix the problem and proceed with attempting to salvage your reputation. As to your earlier comment, the one that I paraphrased in the quote above, along with comments in earlier posts about toolbars being a necessary evil if you want to continue development and how everybody's doing it so it's not so bad: That page in the manual installation wizard that has to do with the extra garbage is intentionally deceptive. Don't pretend you don't know that it is. It doesn't matter that it occurs after you've already accepted the uT upgrade, it contains the phrase "Accept terms and conditions" which always carries the implication that if you do not, you will not be able to install the program you want to install (that being uTorrent in this case). At its best interpretation, that third checkbox makes a potential user think that if they don't install the toolbar, uTorrent won't install, because you haven't accepted the terms and conditions. It's designed specifically to install something users didn't want. Yes, users should read every word of every page of every installation wizard for every program they install. It doesn't happen. License agreements alone are dozens of pages of legalese, which is necessary for developers to protect their copyright. Users don't read them because of this very fact, and unscrupulous developers could easily take advantage of that, inserting clauses like, say, "user authorizes uTorrent Inc. to browse the contents of user's hard drives at any time." Legally and technically, the developer has done nothing wrong, because the user accepted it and it's all there in black and white. But there's a concept called "ethics" that marks the difference between respected developers and, well, developers like you. To the point that toolbars are a necessary evil for revenue. There are a couple problems with your statement. First it's too narrow; advertising or sponsors are necessary for revenue if your program is large enough and developed full-time. Sure. But toolbars specifically? You can negotiate sponsorship deals that don't include dump-trucking onto your users' hard drives. Might I suggest a small (non-animated, for christ's sake) banner ad embedded in your program? AVG does it, and while I have my own problems with them lately their banner ad doesn't bug me, and it doesn't interfere with me using the program or doing anything else, like say, searching on the internet. Your advertising partners would get exposure to every user (as opposed to only those tricked into installing their product or victims of sloppy update routines), and it wouldn't create a mountain of work and bad will for the unlucky or unobservant. My point is that Toolbars and preference hijacking are not the only options, which is good because they are just about the worst ones. Also, the argument you made that "everybody does it" (referring again to toolbars) is pathetic. Do I really have to trot out the "if everybody jumped off a cliff..." adage that all mothers use? In point of fact, not everybody tries to trick their users into installing bloated junk. Some developers are genuinely interested in creating a positive user experience and some businesses are profitable with this kind of thing as their top priority (in truth, not just in mission statements and press releases). Honestly, you should be embarrassed for making this argument. Finally, if you really were concerned about "continued development" as you claim, you could make uTorrent open source. There are genius developers out there who would jump all over this thing. At the very least, someone could fork it and strip it down, and then you'd have today's big pretty version and a tiny, lightweight version like you used to. But that's not the case; you're concerned about making money. That's fine. Just don't insult our intelligence by pretending you're just trying to scrape together enough spare change from the couch cushions for just one.. more.. build... *swoon* You could have somewhat salvaged this situation by 1) Promising to look into the silent shovelware installation and get a fix out as soon as possible 2) At least pretending to be apologetic about the (supposed) necessity of toolbars and emphasizing what the sponsorship dollars bring in terms of value to the product and its continued development 3) Perhaps looking into making the toolbar installation section clearer and more distinct (read: redesign it so it's not deliberately deceptive. You know it is. We know you know it is.) What you did was 1) Blame the users for being stupid and not reading 2) Defend underhanded and deceptive practices 3) Ignore certain complaints and insist that what is happening should not be happening (auto-update silent install) When there are problems, people are going to be angry with you. When you promise to fix them and then fix them in a timely fashion, your mistakes are forgiven and forgotten. When you deny that the problems exist and blame users for having problems, anger turns to rage and etches into memories. Word of mouth via the internet can be incredibly powerful. How much permanent bad will are you willing to risk?
