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General discussion

When did Adobe turn evil?

by tuco74 Mar 11, 2008 12:02AM PDT

I recently had the need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader, and found out the install program forces an install of Google Toolbar and Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition along with it. The webpages leading up to the download only mention Adobe Reader, not mentioning the other programs in any way. Only when their install tool popped up did I see the other programs being installed. There was no way to opt-out of those programs before the install, and no way to cancel the install once it had begun.

I'm a big fan of Google Toolbar, can't browse without it, and I use Photoshop professionally, so I don't have any problems with these applications in general and might have chosen to install them if I had been presented the option, but I am steadfastly against any company that forces additional software onto my computer without my permission or at least advanced warning. I can't believe Adobe has sunk to this level.

Discussion is locked

8 Posts
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Really?? Didn't happen when I downloaded it.
by tango_fox1 Mar 11, 2008 1:26AM PDT

You can remove the Photoshop Elements from the download by unchecking it's box, and as for the Google toolbar I haven't seen it..

J

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Might be a Vista 64bit thing
by tuco74 Mar 11, 2008 4:51AM PDT

I've been comparing the download experience with other people in my office, and they all get the checkbox to deselect the Photoshop Album thing as you described. They are on Vista 32bit, while I'm on Vista 64bit, which gets a different download page without the checkbox. Maybe just a glitch in the website? They can't be trying to pull a fast one on Vista 64bit users specifically, can they?

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(NT) That Might be it. But I'm still on XP. Thx Very Much.
by tango_fox1 Mar 11, 2008 5:10AM PDT
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It Happened after Version Six
by PressAnyKey Mar 11, 2008 4:25AM PDT

Seriously, when version seven hit the market the rest of their cr*p started coming along for the ride.

It's not just the extra useless nonesense either. Acrobat Reader is SLOW, BLOATED, and wants to download updates every few weeks. One more fun fact: Whenever it updates you need to install each update separately and reboot your machine each time.

ARGH!!!! I finally got rid of it for some lite-footprint PDF compatible reader (Fox It I think). If you insist on sticking with Adobe Reader than the last version of just the Reader is version six. It's old (circa 2004) but amazingly it even works with Vista (32 and 64 bit).

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than = then
by PressAnyKey Mar 11, 2008 4:27AM PDT

Can we get an edit feature on this forum???

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The "Edit" feature comes up before you post if you hit..
by tango_fox1 Mar 11, 2008 4:39AM PDT

Preview post.

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(NT) (NT) Thanks!
by PressAnyKey Mar 11, 2008 5:56AM PDT
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(NT) NP
by tango_fox1 Mar 11, 2008 6:08AM PDT
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