You know what I hate more than anything (well, OK, maybe not more than anything, but you know what I mean)? Software that I carefully install to make sure it doesn’t change any of my settings that later goes on to try to change my settings.
I present to you Windows Live Messenger. I’m not Windows Live Messenger fan, partly because I find the applications annoying to use, partly because all the ads and winks and nudges and junk make it tiresome, partly because it’s tedious to install just the Messenger part, and partly because there are third-party apps that do a better job. However, the other day I needed Messenger on a system I had so downloaded the installer from Microsoft, navigated the minefield of options where it tries to install pretty much every bit of free code Microsoft has onto my system and change settings on my system to “MSNify” and “Bingify” it.
Finally, I get Messenger installed. And, wow, at this point do I feel the need to express what an ugly mess this application as become. What used to be a simple tool to let me chat with others has expanded into something that is part portal, part ad displaying machine. Chatting to my contacts is secondary to making me aware of the existence of ‘Bing’ and putting dating sites a click away.
Ugh.
Anyway, I get it installed. It works. I’m happy.
Well, I’m happy until a few system reboots later Messenger brings a dialog box offering me the chance to ’select’ my settings:
There are several things I find distasteful about this dialog box:
- First, it lurks, waiting for me to restart Messenger a few times before offering these settings changes. Why not just offer them right at the start when I’m setting it up? Maybe because I was in an unselecting mood back then and Microsoft are hoping that this time I’ll just click OK to make the dialog box go away.
- I fired up Messenger, yet the title of the box is Windows Live Essentials 2011 … why not be clear as to the origin of this pop-up?
- Why are all the settings pre-checked? OK, I know why all the settings are pre-checked, it’s because Microsoft wants me to click OK and make these changes happen. But why not be clearer and less scammy and make the checked/unchecked state of the options reflect my current settings? Don’t bother answering that because I know why … it’s an attempt at pushing these settings on me.
There are three good reasons why Microsoft wants me to make Bing the default for searches and change my homepage to MSN, here they are listed in order of importance:
- Money
- Money!
- MONEY!!!
Well, times are hard and Microsoft’s online arm hasn’t really been the cash cow that the company expected it to be, but trying to underhandedly push system changes feels scammy and makes it harder to recommend the product to others (especially those who blindly click dialog boxes and then hassle me asking where Google has gone or why LOLcatz is no longer their home page).
As annoying as this is, I still hate Jar Jar Binks even more.
