Live Essentials Update Rant

stefan — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 20:55:30 GMT

Today when I tried to log in to Live Messenger I was notified of a required update. The dialog said that I must install this update before I can log in, so it’s not an optional update. The update itself didn’t come as a surprise, I had read about it some days ago on the Windows Live Team blog, however they said it would be an optional upgrade.

During the installation I was presented with this dialog (I’m using the German version, so apologies to those who don’t speak German):

In the bottom left it lists the programs that will be updated. Besides Messenger there’s also Photo Gallery and Writer. These are all the programs from the Live Essentials suite that I have installed, and it’s understandable that their versions should be kept in sync, so no problem here.

But in the upper left are all the Live Essential programs that have chosen NOT to install. And as you can see they are all selected for installation (except Movie Maker because it’s still in beta). Why can’t the Live Essentials installer remember and respect my previous selection? Why does it try to push these other programs on me when all I wanted to do is update Live Messenger?

This attitude continues in the final step of the install. As you may have guessed already, the installer wants to change my default search provider and my browser homepage:

I can (and did) de-select those options, but why are they selected by default? I feel like the Live installer is trying to trick me into doing things that I don’t want to do. And all this just for a tiny Messenger update from version 14.0.8050.1202 to version 14.0.8064.0206.

Adobe Reader Installation Woes

stefan — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:00:33 GMT

Yesterday I upgraded Adobe Reader to version 9, and I encountered a couple of issues.

It started with the inevitable toolbar offering:

Google Toolbar was selected by default, and while the big yellow "Download" button is placed prominently at the top of the page, the checkbox to opt out of Google Toolbar is way down, near the fold.

Next I had to install an ActiveX control, apparently a download manager. I wonder if/how Adobe will make sure I'll receive an updated version, should there be a security issue in this ActiveX control.

The actual installation went through without major problems. The FilesInUse dialog told me to close the browser window with Adobe's download page before the installation proceeds.

When the installation was finished I had two new items on my desktop:

As usual, Adobe placed a shortcut to launch Adobe Reader on my desktop, without asking. Not good, but no surprise.

But in addition Adobe created a folder on my desktop with the setup files (Setup.exe, AcroRead.msi, Data1.cab, etc.) in it. This brings up a couple of questions and concerns:

Why don't they extract the setup files to a temp folder, or somewhere in my application data folder?

What will happen if I delete this folder? Will this break Windows Installer maintenance operations like repair?

Why does the folder have full permissions for everyone? Yes, you're reading this correctly: Adobe placed a folder on my personal desktop, without asking me, and set the permissions on the folder so that everyone in the Users group has full access.

InstallSite Blog : Rant

Live Essentials Update Rant

Adobe Reader Installation Woes