Shoutbox

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Originally posted by MeEtc
And as I mentioned above,

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Originally posted by MeEtc
FYI, the ad-ware components do not work at all under Windows XP, they do not get installed regardless of what checkboxes are selected.

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I ran the installer a bunch of times through a VM, and not once was there any trace of toolbars or any other adware related tools anywhere. I used a system diff tool (WhatChanged) to do an inspection and found zero extras being added.

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Not correct.
There are plenty of traces.
The smartbar for example IS installed, using Windows XP SP3.
However, it does not seem to work on MSIE 8 on this test machine, but stuff gets clearly installed nontheless.

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
Not correct.
There are plenty of traces.
The smartbar for example IS installed, using Windows XP SP3.
However, it does not seem to work on MSIE 8 on this test machine, but stuff gets clearly installed nontheless.

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Have a look for yourself if you like:
http://www.meetcweb.com/?dir=whatchanged/
I have XP Pro SP3, IE 8 and Chrome 25.0.1364.172 m as downloaded on the day I did the tests back in march.

Well maybe Whatchanged isn't working correctly (personally, I never trusted such apps anyways and always found that they always miss many things).

Plus, I see in that file list that you have something like Microsoft Antimalware installed and running. I don't know exactly how it is related or if it is an influence, but it might be that this has blocked the actual installation of the Smartbar(?). Either way, it clearly tells me that your test install wasn't a clean uninfluenced install, otherwise those specific file changes wouldn't be there to begin with.

I also don't see any temporary files created by the installer in that file list (and there should be plenty). This is one of those things that such tools like Whatchanged never seem to be able to catch. Another thing they often tend to miss are changed files (especially byte by byte changes without changing the filesize). And thus why I almost never use them; you miss quite a lot.

Anyways, on my test install, using real-time monitoring software (not snapshots), I can clearly see several processes and services being started up by the installer (besides the normal expected Plus!-installation stuff that is). Processes which in turn install the Smartbar, change Windows settings, etc. And the Smartbar is definitely installed afterwards (+-20MB on files and data for the Smartbar alone). I don't have Chrome installed though, so it is not my default browser, maybe that is the reason(?).

Either way, stating that the ad-ware components never get installed in XP, is therefor not quite correct.


EDIT: Another big downside of some tools like Whatchanged is that they sometimes can only track 1 process at a time, or only processes started in a very specific way. But the Smartbar installation (and other crap) is done by secondary processes. I don't know if Whatchanged is indeed such a limited tool (although I doubt it, but it is possible), but this might explain why there is no single trace of those additional things in your logs.

It does a before and after scan, nothing during or realtime

So now we have an ad-free version anyway?

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Originally posted by olivex
So now we have an ad-free version anyway?

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yes...

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Originally posted by CookieRevised

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Originally posted by Nathalie
You can use this link  to install Messenger Plus! (for Skype) without the toolbar or any other offer   

http://goo.gl/O0nXL

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Thanks.

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Note to others: be carefull, this installer does not have a specific "accept & install" button!

As soon as you click the "Next" button, Plus! will be installed without any second confirmation.
This because the second screen, with the "accept & install" button, is simply skipped.

(you can't expect them to do everything right... even something as simple as renaming a button, right?)

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Originally posted by CookieRevised

quote:

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Originally posted by olivex
So now we have an ad-free version anyway?

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yes...

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Originally posted by CookieRevised

quote:

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Originally posted by Nathalie
You can use this link  to install Messenger Plus! (for Skype) without the toolbar or any other offer   

http://goo.gl/O0nXL

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Thanks.

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Note to others: be carefull, this installer does not have a specific "accept & install" button!

As soon as you click the "Next" button, Plus! will be installed without any second confirmation.
This because the second screen, with the "accept & install" button, is simply skipped.

(you can't expect them to do everything right... even something as simple as renaming a button, right?)

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Yes I noticed the installation step jumps from 1 to 3 directly

So how about build 125? Still ad hijacked?

All good things must come to an end.

I like Google Hangouts

No ad-ware on my Samsung smartphone using Hangouts, What'sApp, Viber and IM+ Pro!





PS.: The following is somewhat of a rant:
Aside from having lost my interest in Messenger Plus! a long time ago, I'm also losing my interest in Skype due to it being taken over by Microsoft, and since then poorly (or not at all) updated. Even the "Messenger" integration in Skype is a disaster.

It looks to me that all they've done is set the Messenger servers to only accept log in from official Skype client, which in turn simply logs in both Messenger and Skype once your accounts are "linked."
On top of that, the "linking" works poorly. Logging in with Microsoft account will load both Messenger and Skype contacts, logging in with Skype account will only load Skype contacts. 

This makes it significantly harder for Mobile messenger apps to support Messenger in Skype. IM+ Pro was one of the first third party apps with support for logging in with your Microsoft account, however they do not have access to load your Messenger contacts regardless.