Participant

Question

Bundling Google Chrome and Toolbar???

Forum|Forum|13 years ago
August 23, 2012
16 replies
88918 views

Has anyone noticed that the latest Flash update automatically installs Google Toolbar and Google Chrome? What a horrible business decision Adobe. Force installing software like you are Napster. I would fire the product manager that made that decision. As a CTO I will be informing my IT staff to set Flash to ignore updates from this point forward. QA staff cannot have additional items installed that are not part of the base browser installation. Ridiculous that Adobe snuck this crap in. All I can hope now is to find something that challenges Photoshop so I can move my design team away from Adobe software as well. Smart move trying to make pennies off of your high dollar customers.

This topic has been closed for replies.

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Anonymous

This post started on Aug 22, 2012 today is Feb 24, 2015. I received an "update required" message, knowing all about this scam I watched as it started to install the update and McAfee a/v. It's been 2 years 6 months and 2 days and it's still happening, a search for "adobe flash installs additional programs without permission" yields 854,000 results, and "Bundling Google Chrome and Toolbar???" yields 340.000 results. Adobe has sunk to the same level (as far as respect goes) as once great sites like Cnet, brothersoft, softonic... to name a few. why won't adobe just die already.

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jayc55503988

Participant

Well Sparky ... I agree with you wholeheartedly. However, the answer to "why won't adobe just die already" is very simple Business 101: They won't die because of "Supply and Demand" logic. Sad but very true. Many manufacturers / developers are more interested in the money than customer satisfaction.

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jayc55503988

Participant

By that I mean that if you look at the majority (if not all) tablets, notebooks, towers, and desktops that were put out in the market place, McAfee and Adobe Flashplayer were installed in most of those systems. While it is free to us, those apps' licensing rights were originally purchased by those companies manufacturing those devices. That's how it was possible for Adobe to pass the Flashplayer and the Reader on as free apps to the general public; their dollar had been made.

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bjf2000

Inspiring

Ahem. Lookee here. A way to say "no, in the future, don't even think about it." If they can do it, so can you.

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AudraDil

Participant

So, a simple internet search reveals that a ton of people are complaining about Adobe bundling Chrome/Google Toolbar and Adobe still refuses to change it? We are running into the same problem in our business. Unless you deselect the box for the Google Chrome and Toolbar install, it installs. We have users of all levels of computer knowledge and trying to get them to remember to DESELECT the UNWANTED software results in it being unintentionally installed. We are a law firm and having Google Chrome installed causes major problems with our legal practice management software in addition to the Outlook problems previously mentioned after Chrome is manually deinstalled. It is time consuming and an absolute outrage that we have to spend so much time manually deinstalling products and correcting residual technical issues when we never wanted the extra software in the first place. What is it going to take for Adobe to stop forcing products we don't want down our throats? I'm ready to take our business back to Nuance.

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shazbot2000

Participating Frequently

At least you see the option to choose what bundled items you want to install!

The main reason for this thread is that many of us have had this payload installed with no way to opt out, it just goes from install update >click next >installing junkware. The only way to stop it is to cancel the installation, that is, if you have even noticed it is being installed.

Of course, Adobe completely deny this happens, and blames us clueless internet newbies of being wrong, even when we provide screenshots.

I used to provide IT services to a SME law firm, I know your pain.
I used to provide high level IT services to a FTSE 100 firm, adobe was outlawed because of its rubbish coding and the resource hogging nature of their software. That was across a 4000 user base. The only exception being marketing and legal who had to use CS and Acrobat. For reading pdf files, we used a 3rd party reader which never gave us the issues adobe's bloatware did. Flash was removed by script whenever it managed to find its way on to machines.

What adobe forgets is, some of us here have buying and decision making power out there in the business world.
You piss us off and we boycott your company wherever possible. We're not the muppets you seem to think we are.

Check please.......

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HEC-mr

Participating Frequently

Good article if you use a proxy or corporate filter - I haven't tested to see if these are still active links but recent posts still mention using them.

http://conveyor2.shockley.net/2012/10/blocking-update-extras

Update:

Added to our filter - no change. I would have to monitor to verify if the URL changed or something else was not doing what it was supposed to.

Good thought anyway.

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omgnotagain

Participant

After wasting too much of my time reading here and on Google forums, I have decided to eliminate all Adobe products from my computer. Over the years, I have been a staunch supporter of this company, but after reading this forum, I now know that I can no longer trust them. I feel sorry for Chris, having to toe the party line for the company. He doesn't make these decisions, just has to spout nonsense in order to keep his paycheck secure. If I cannot find alternatives, I will do without. I have never liked Google, and am incensed that this is being forced upon me. I WILL NOT waste my time researching and scrutinizing with a microscope each and every time Adobe needs to update any of their products on my computer. Trust has been lost, and there's no going back. Damn shame that Adobe has come to this. As an editor, I have found their services invaluable. No longer, /sigh.

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lemonskin2

Participant

It's just happened to me. Well, it would've done, but I saw what was happening, and clicked on the cancel button in the nick of time. This behaviour by Adobe has incensed me. There was no opt-out given. No matter how many times you Adobe people keep telling us we should have been given one, we weren't. No matter how many times you keep telling us that you can't reproduce it, it doesn't alter the fact that it's happened to us - many of us. There are screenshots to prove it!

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GrantCh

Participant

Ok add another annoyed voice to the growing chorus of people who can tell you your product is wrong, but you either have no clue, or chose to ignore us in favour of getting paid by google.

Firstly, can I share my desktop with you or send you a video or something else... how about go jump! This installed the update, until there is another update, how could I reproduce for you! I am not wasting my time on your crapware by uninstalling updates to re-set this up!

So what happened, as everyone else has said:

1) Turn on computer

2) Adobe tells me there is a flash update

3) Click on dialog that asks me to install it

4) Download starts, which includes Chrome

Notice there is no step in there anywhere that took me to a website that allowed me to opt out. I am very familiar with the website as I have used it in the past for other updates, however THIS TIME it did not take me to the web.

This is on a company computer within an IT development company, we know what the hell we are doing, and this plainly did not work!

Time to start spreading this more widely to the news sites, adobe invading our privacy by installing unsolicited software.

You can hide behind you FAQ and how it SHOULd work, I don't give a crap, it did not work!

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no_no_no_no

Participant

Well here we are eight months later, and this still hasn't been resolved.

As can be seen from the screenshot, there is no way to opt-out - and and others have noted, why should we have to opt out of it at all?

I managed to cancel the download before Chrome was installed, but couldn't stop my pc getting infected with Toolbar.

SORT THIS OUT!

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MiscZZZ

Participant

I just got sucked into this as well. Darn. Same story. Agreed to update Flash player and before I knew it, Google Chrome and Toolbar were installing. No opt out or opt in. No indication that it was being slipped in. Now I have Chrome shortcuts all over the place. I'm not even philosophically opposed to Google; I just don't want it rammed down my throat by an update from an Adobe Flash player. Not cool. After reading this post, I realize nothing is being done, but just wanted add my dissent.

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DenverDeveloper1

Participant

It's unacceptable that an Adobe Flash “update” is installing extras beyond just the update, and without permission.

@#)(*%()@#*%)(@#% ADOBE!!!

I’m glad HTML5 has the promise of removing most, if not all, the need for Flash.

I cannot trust Adobe and I hope the user community rejects this hijacking of our computers.

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Phil Dyk

Participant

I have the same issue - Chrome starts installing when I only expected a Flash update. This is a terrible decision by Adobe. I manage the IT services of our small company and will now disable all automatic Adobe updates.

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Il_Davo

Participant

Adding my name to the list of disgruntled Adobe customers who object to Adobe's "sneakware" -- requiring users to explicitly de-select the addition of Google Chrome when responding to what appears to be a simple "Update Adobe Flash" dialog.

Very poor business practice.

Huge abuse of trust. Shame on Adobe.

Simply altering the destination web form such that the Google Chrome option is de-selected by default -- thus requiring the user to explicitly select it if he or she would like to download and install Chome -- would fix the issue and demonstrate the Adobe values an ethical relationship with its customers.

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gdollrw

Participant

Monopolies aren’t really all that concerned what we think is ethical. I even contacted several supposed trade news journals during the initial outbreak that blew through and just installed the Google stuff without asking. They determined not enough damage had been done to make it newsworthy and that it’s a widespread industry practice. Why pick on Adobe (except that they muffed the initial execution) when Java updates have been tricking users into installing junkware for years. Unfortunately Flash and Java are still in widespread use – and there are no plug-n-play replacements at this time.

I share your outrage – but that’s what we get for expecting anything coming down the wire to be free (as a society, that is).

After all the HTML5 and Flash-bashing out there Adobe figured they’d better milk this cash cow for all it’s worth now.

MOOO

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Electrojim

Participant

I encountered this same situation with the Win7 laptop in my lab. After accepting the Flash Player update, I noticed Chrome and the Toolbar had been installed. I figured I'd just missed the notice to decline, so I simply uninstalled them. No problem.

A few days later, my wife's Win7 desktop received the same notice that a flash player update was available. She asked me if she should install it. I told her to move over, that I would take care of this. I then watched very carefully during the update process, and nowhere was there a screen to opt out. The installation completed and, sure enough, Chrome and the Toolbar were there... and were quickly uninstalled, thank you very much.

Here's the kicker, now. I thought to myself that maybe the new version of Flash Player might have something going for it, despite the bundling fiasco, so I decided to put it on my WinVista machine. But instead of waiting for an update notice to roll in, I went to the Adobe Website, found the installer, and did the installation that way. Guess what... NO Chrome or Toolbar. Hooray! BUT... after updating Flash my IE8 browser refused to connect. It would accept the URL, but then would spend eternity 'waiting' for the site, with the little round thing spinning away continually. No "Internet Explorer is unable to.." notice at all, it would just never connect to any site typed in.

I might have eventually been able to troubleshoot the browser failure, but I simply went back to a restore point from a day or two before. That got the browser working. The latest, updated version of Flash Player still shows installed in my list of installed programs, and I think I would know by now if it didn't work, but something funny happened during that update that only a rollback fixed. Hope this helps the understanding of this problem.

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