> Winzip and Nero use the Ask Partner Network

Sadly, on Windows even Oracle's Java has the ASK toolbar.

Almost nobody has any pride left on the Windows-platform, user-abuse is rampant, almost expected. It's killing the platform and there's nothing Microsoft can do about it.

That really made me boggle when I saw it. "Wait, a massive business owned by the one of the richest guys in the world is whoring itself out for ... pennies from a washed-up search engine? WTF?"

I then sat for a minute, couldn't think of anything I'd done in the last several months that needed Java, and uninstalled it. I haven't missed it.

I personally think that Microsoft is far too willing to roll over and play dead when it comes to anti-trust issues.

They should simply ban any adware on Windows that is opt-out rather than opt-in. If anyone breaks that rule, they should put it in the anti-virus signature database for Microsoft Security Essentials, so it cannot be installed without the user going through hoops.

They should then go to the DOJ or the EU, say, "We want to clean up the user experience," back it up with articles from Mac-lovers like Walt Mossberg talking about how bad the crapware experience is on Windows, printouts of forums like this one showing nearly-universal hatred of these practices, etc.

And if the DOJ or EU say "No, we'll slap antitrust fines on you if you do that," then they should publish all of the correspondence publicly, and harness the waves of Internet fury to compel the regulators to back down. Even if the regulators don't back down, they'll get good publicity from actually taking responsibility for their platform and trying to clean it up.

P.S. The Bing toolbar doesn't help Microsoft's case. They should "take one for the user" and voluntarily eliminate the Bing toolbar. If they succeed in getting rid of all toolbars, then maybe they'll actually get more traffic to Bing, because users won't have their search engines hijacked.

Isn't this what they're doing about it? http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/apps

I was considering mentioning Windows RT/Windows 8 and it's "Metro" (Modern) app-store. but decided that I wouldn't. Not because I didn't think about it, not because I wasn't aware of it, but because I decided that so far it seems not to be a very effective means to the end of salvaging Windows' reputation.

Especially given how the "Metro" platform so far seemingly have caused more negative user-feedback than positive-feedback, I'm not sure this counts as Microsoft "being able to do something about it".

I admit that I no longer use Windows daily and I've never tried Win 8 so I'm not super plugged in to what they're doing these days. But I don't see any inherit reason why Apple can more-or-less successfully bolt an App Store onto their OS while Microsoft cannot.

Doesn't help that whenever I read/hear "Metro" I flashback to the police in my living room collecting a statement about being assaulted on the train or an early morning ride through paris after spending the night filling out police statements for the same.

Maybe they were going for the "I love inner city public transport and its positive, upbeat experience" demographic. I must be one of those outliers who finds the act of being crammed like sardines into the sweaty, infectious mess of sheep to be just like Microsoft's attitude towards its customers, especially with Metro.

> It's killing the platform and there's nothing Microsoft can do about it.

They could have made a real Windows Store instead of a WinRT-only store.

> They could have made a real Windows Store instead of a WinRT-only store.

And they didn't have to wait for Windows 8 to do it, either. Roll it out with Windows 7 SP2.

Microsoft is way too wedded to their multi-year release cycles.

Only the Java installer stub (online installer) has the ASK toolbar prompt, the offline installer does not.

The updater always prompts you for it, though, because it always uses the stub installer. Shameful.

justcheck says "Sorry about that vulnerability that was all over the news, here is an update for you... but first maybe you would like to install the Ask Toolbar??? Yeah?"

I don't know why they don't open their store to desktop apps. Maybe they have an agreement somewhere which hinders that action.

There are links to desktop applications in store, so probably reason is not legal. Most likely it's because they want to move desktop applications to new APIs which are not ready yet.

It wasn't Ask or Conduit. It was actually a company I had trusted. That is before I received their email...

Oh looks like they both install the AVG toolbar now, wow, I didn't know AVG had a program like that:

http://www.avg.com/ww-en/reseller

Why don't you name them? You're doing everyone a disservice by keeping their dirty secret.

Interestingly, the InstallMonetizer overview image [1] shows a dialog containing the text "customizable and will help you search the Internet" - which apparently is from the Ask Toolbar EULA...

[1] http://installmonetizer.com/AT_images/process.gif

[2] http://about.ask.com/en/docs/about/ask_eula.shtml

I believe offering the Ask bloatware is how BitTorrent finally ended up making money. I guess there's not much money in p2p filesharing.