Author Topic: WHY is Chrome a part of Avast 8 installer?  (Read 30510 times)

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jbaumann

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Re: WHY is Chrome a part of Avast 8 installer?
« Reply #15 on: March 17, 2013, 05:27:23 PM »
Chrome isn't installed without anyone's knowledge.
Never Has been for me!
Who's not paying attention ;)

I actually came here to the forum for the first time right now just to complain about the Chrome installation and found this thread.

I had Avast prof. 7 inform me about an available update, so I clicked the "OK, update it" button in the application - then Avast went ahead, did a very lenghty update (without asking any questions) and afterwards I was greeted by a freshly installed Google Chrome (and I did not have Chrome installed until then). So yes, it IS installed without asking the user, at least if you use the update functionality from within Avast.

Not very professional, imo, and makes me think about whether I should really update my subscription (which coincidentally runs out in 20 days). Plainly looks as if Avast is trying to make some extra money on the side from its already paying customers.

Tetsuo

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Re: WHY is Chrome a part of Avast 8 installer?
« Reply #16 on: March 17, 2013, 06:28:46 PM »
Chrome isn't installed without anyone's knowledge.
Never Has been for me!
Who's not paying attention ;)
I had Avast prof. 7 inform me about an available update, so I clicked the "OK, update it" button in the application - then Avast went ahead, did a very lenghty update (without asking any questions) and afterwards I was greeted by a freshly installed Google Chrome (and I did not have Chrome installed until then). So yes, it IS installed without asking the user, at least if you use the update functionality from within Avast.

Despite what other enthusiastic users might say, you're right, jbaumann. It's not your fault. Since the introduction of Google stuff (i.e. browser and toolbar) in Avast's installers, many users keep coming on the forum at each upgrade asking why they now have Chrome on their system. This is exactly the reason why third party software hidden packaged within an installer should never be pre-checked: something is bound to happen sooner or later and eventually things could go wrong... Obviously, I mean "wrong" for the users not for AVAST Software or Google Inc.

Yeah, the same thing happened to me last year.

Offline Gopher John

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Re: WHY is Chrome a part of Avast 8 installer?
« Reply #17 on: March 17, 2013, 07:43:40 PM »
FWIW, many of us that have been on the forums for quite a while have requested that any third party software be opt-in, not opt-out.  Thus far, nothing has changed.  Making it opt-in would/should prevent accidental installs, even if one were inattentive.  Either I've been very lucky or very attentive, but Avast installs nor update via AvastUI has ever installed Google Chrome for me.
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Offline chris..

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Re: WHY is Chrome a part of Avast 8 installer?
« Reply #18 on: March 17, 2013, 08:40:23 PM »
It would be so nice for all users to choose to check undead to uncheck.
I'm sure there would never topic like this to annoy more or less people....
... but  what about avast & google ? ;)

mjt

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Re: WHY is Chrome a part of Avast 8 installer?
« Reply #19 on: March 17, 2013, 08:57:56 PM »
Either I've been very lucky or very attentive, but Avast installs nor update via AvastUI has ever installed Google Chrome for me.
Well, Gopher John, there are obviously a number of users who've had this happen when allowing Avast to update from within the application and you can see from the screenshot in my post #14 that no option is provided. When the Update button is clicked there are no further prompts, it goes straight to install. I see you have systems with both XP and Win7 which rather rules out the possibility of a different response for each version so how do you explain it?

Offline Gopher John

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Re: WHY is Chrome a part of Avast 8 installer?
« Reply #20 on: March 17, 2013, 09:08:02 PM »
Either I've been very lucky or very attentive, but Avast installs nor update via AvastUI has ever installed Google Chrome for me.
Well, Gopher John, there are obviously a number of users who've had this happen when allowing Avast to update from within the application and you can see from the screenshot in my post #14 that no option is provided. When the Update button is clicked there are no further prompts, it goes straight to install. I see you have systems with both XP and Win7 which rather rules out the possibility of a different response for each version so how do you explain it?

See my post in this thread. http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=117411.msg909451#msg909451  I don't have the reason why my different OS had different responses, but I did offer a speculation as to why.  I just don't know the reason.  Do you?
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mjt

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Re: WHY is Chrome a part of Avast 8 installer?
« Reply #21 on: March 17, 2013, 09:35:08 PM »
I've no idea. Your speculation in your other thread seems as good a guess as any.

Maybe the Avast developers are the really unattentive ones and this slipped through due to insufficient testing.

In any event I won't be updating my Avast while there is a risk of it happening again.
« Last Edit: March 17, 2013, 09:39:27 PM by mjt »

Offline Gopher John

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Re: WHY is Chrome a part of Avast 8 installer?
« Reply #22 on: March 17, 2013, 10:01:37 PM »
I've no idea. Your speculation in your other thread seems as good a guess as any.

Maybe the Avast developers are the really unattentive ones and this slipped through due to insufficient testing.

In any event I won't be updating my Avast while there is a risk of it happening again.

You could update by downloading the installer and do a custom overinstall.  That should give you the option to choose (or not) any module also.
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Tetsuo

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Re: WHY is Chrome a part of Avast 8 installer?
« Reply #23 on: March 18, 2013, 10:22:09 AM »
You could update by downloading the installer and do a custom overinstall.  That should give you the option to choose (or not) any module also.

I agree with you, Gopher John.

Apart from a clean install (which I think it's advisable for major releases, such in this case) downloading the installer and doing a custom over-install  is the best way of upgrading, in my opinion.

mjt

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Re: WHY is Chrome a part of Avast 8 installer?
« Reply #24 on: March 18, 2013, 10:41:56 AM »
I see my current registration expires in 58 days so I'll probably wait and do a download and clean install then.

I hope Avast fixes the embedded update for Win7 users though, for the sake of other unsuspecting users.

Tetsuo

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Re: WHY is Chrome a part of Avast 8 installer?
« Reply #25 on: March 18, 2013, 10:49:09 AM »
By the way, don't forget to do a "custom install" in any case.

mjt

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Re: WHY is Chrome a part of Avast 8 installer?
« Reply #26 on: March 18, 2013, 10:54:10 AM »
That's my default position  :)

Grifter02

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Re: WHY is Chrome a part of Avast 8 installer?
« Reply #27 on: March 18, 2013, 02:24:01 PM »
I just made an account to add to this thread. Avast update installed Chrome on my machine without giving me an option as well. After clicking on the update button I was not presented with any other options and after rebooting to finish the installation I had Google Chrome installed and set as my default browser.

There was absolutely no option for whether to install Chrome or not for me. I'm not some computer illiterate who doesn't know how to use the custom install options, I was not given an option at all.

In reply to schmidthouse, as far as it being a "small thing" to get bent out of shape over, I have installed this software on over 20 machines for people who don't know how to use computers and now I will have to visit every one of them to uninstall Chrome when they call me asking why their browser doesn't have their bookmarks or their normal homepage anymore.

Thanks a lot Avast!  >:(

EDITED to seem less like an attack on schmidthouse, that was not my intention but it read that way initially.
« Last Edit: March 18, 2013, 03:01:16 PM by Grifter02 »

Offline bob3160

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Re: WHY is Chrome a part of Avast 8 installer?
« Reply #28 on: March 18, 2013, 02:41:43 PM »

@Grifter02
Quote
now I will have to visit every one of them to uninstall Chrome when they call me asking why their browser doesn't have their bookmarks or their normal homepage anymore!
You could simply change the default browser setting back to the original default browser. Once done, things will be back to normal and,
If you want to still get rid of Chrome, so be it.
I don't get the option to uncheck chrome because Chrome is installed on my system.
I did get the option when I installed avast! on a system that never had Chrome installed.
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Grifter02

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Re: WHY is Chrome a part of Avast 8 installer?
« Reply #29 on: March 18, 2013, 02:59:43 PM »

@Grifter02
Quote
now I will have to visit every one of them to uninstall Chrome when they call me asking why their browser doesn't have their bookmarks or their normal homepage anymore!
You could simply change the default browser setting back to the original default browser. Once done, things will be back to normal and,
If you want to still get rid of Chrome, so be it.
I don't get the option to uncheck chrome because Chrome is installed on my system.
I did get the option when I installed avast! on a system that never had Chrome installed.

With some people, even something as simple as changing the default browser is a chore over the phone ;)

I don't see how having had Chrome installed in the past, but not currently, gives Avast the right to re-install it on my machine without asking.