Over the weekend reports were coming in that a Skype Extras manager update was installing software called ‘EasyBits Go‘ onto Windows machines. Now EasyBits Media has released a statement along with a removal tool.
‘EasyBits GO is NOT a malware, it is a legitimate application distributed by EasyBits Media as part of our scheduled update.’
Given how the update forced its way onto user’s systems, I think people could be forgiven for thinking it was malware.
EasyBits Go games have been included with the Skype download package since 2006.
According to EasyBits Media, the problem with this latest release has been traced down to a fault with the installer.
‘Unfortunately the user interface in the update installer has defects causing confusing user experience that leads to unintentional installations.’
The update has been removed until a fix can be found.
Malware it might not be, but it’s a major breach of trust on the part of EasyBits Media who made the software and Skype which allowed it to be bundled with the update. Having a fouled up installer that ‘neither installs nor un-installs correctly‘ which then requires the user to go scrabbling through the file system deleting files, or having to download an uninstaller is a really ugly situation to leave users in. It’s also highly inappropriate for EasyBits Media to be touting how the fouled up update has increased user of EasyBits Go:
‘Since the update, game sessions have jumped from 850,000 top daily game sessions to over 7 million game sessions globally yesterday.’
It’s also clear that Skype doesn’t perform much in the way of testing of its own downloads, which is worrying.
Now that Skype has been bought by Microsoft, I think it’s time for the company to put some distance between itself and EasyBits Media.
