Bloatware!

[Paul5CF5]

Dear Adobe,

Today I tried to reinstall acrobat reader DC from https://get2.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/ as my current installation is giving some issues.

When running the installer and without any prior information, request for permission or way to avoid it, two Mcafee trials are installed!

Immediately, the unwanted and obsolete Mcafee crap starts using precious resources. When proceeding to uninstall them, it turns out the the uninstall option for the scanner does not work and I have to proceed to a manual uninstall.

How can a 'proper' software company like Adobe resort to these kind of practices? Surely this is beneath you....

[try67]

The entire middle part of that page is a box with two (optional, that is, unselected by default) check-boxes. Did you see that before downloading the installer? Unless you ticked those boxes you would not have gotten those applications bundled with Reader.

[Paul5CF5]

It seems that the page is being generated differently based on location/browser/machine/etc.

I have checked the page yesterday before making the post, and there was nothing there.

Even if the first time around I would have missed the mention of the 2 Mcafee products, I have definitely not clicked any checkboxes. So if they were there (which I don't think), they must have been selected by default.

Just checking the website now, gives me the following, previously unseen screen:

 

This now shows an 'option' for the Acrobat chrome extension (at least related, so a lot less bloaty than the Mcafee stuff).

Note that this option is selected by default...

[try67]

The design of this page changed dramatically in the last couple of days, it seems. Maybe you got a version of it that was not finalized or something... This is what I'm seeing now:

[Paul5CF5]

Interesting. So at your side checkboxes are unchecked by default?

I still think it's a shame for Adobe to 'resort' to be a distribution channel for other, unrelated software. It doesn't fit my image of a proper software company.

Thank you for your replies!

[try67]

Yes, they are not checked by default.

I tend to agree that this is not the best practice, but I can also understand that Adobe wants to recoup its investment in developing an application that is distributed for free, and that's one of the ways of doing so.

The other is to cram it full of buttons that suggest it has features it doesn't actually have, but send you to purchase the version of it that does... At least it doesn't have ads.

[defaultaqevu71hev7d]

I just downloaded acrobat today- Mine were checked by default.