Shark007's Win7 video codecs & the Bing bar

I know this is an official mirror for Shark007's codecs, and I know a guy's gotta eat, but since when was forcing users to install the Bing toolbar (or any toolbar) a good thing to do? I will not install these drivers any longer, as this developer is begging to lose any good will he may have earned through the craft of his codec packages (although a bit self-indulgent in it's own reviews).

Is this an accepted practice? I use CCleaner, and they always want to install a toolbar on your computer. The difference is that they allow you to opt-out via a checkbox during the installation, and also provide "slim" and portable versions sans toolbar altogether.

Also, the toolbar is HUGE: it must take up at least 25 pixels of vertical space... The uninstallation of it is also clunky; you have to run his special settings app as admin, then click uninstall from inside of that. It has no option to uninstall in the Programs menus.

 

Shark posted a workaround for it on his forum last month so his intent can't be too malicious.

http://shark007.net/forum/Thread-So-BingBar-installs-automatically-now?pid=11444#pid11444

 

I didn't say his intentions are malicious. They're just unfriendly to people who don't want yet another toolbar, and don't want to go through the process of uninstalling it. It installs it for IE & Firefox as well. Again, no option there. The uninstall also takes a pretty good while compared to most other (non-malware) toolbars, and some Windows service packs.

Also, if he's going to go through all the trouble to make me go through all the trouble, I just won't. A registry patch prior to installation? What's next in the ridiculous hurdles thrown down to increase the percentage of bing bar installs? A batch file? .com files? Compile this here source code with various flags and run the binary as a windows service in the background while you run the codec installer?

 

I've always used K-Lite codec packs, because I have complete control over everything, from the install to configuration.

 

Shark007... Well not going into it but I wouldn't install that codec pack on my enemies computer. Or anything else he touches.

 

Quick question, since I need a new codec pack because the K-Lite one is making VLC crash for me: Can I definitely remove the Bing bar with the link Solaris posted, after installing the Shark pack?

The way I see it, if MA vouches for the developer, that automatically makes it okay, but I just happen to have a deep personal hatred of Bing.

 

Hi,

The fix I linked to doesn't remove the Bing bar, it prevents it from being installed. Shark had the Bing inclusion several versions ago. Upon each new version his program automatically uninstalls the current version. Between installs, I merged the fix into the registry, which it does automatically, and have never been prompted again for the Bing bar during installation of updated versions. If you've never used his codec packs, I would think you would merge the fix into the registry before installation.

Obviously I can only speak for the computers I use, but I've never had any problems with his packs and in fact have donated to his cause. And his packs are fully configurable.

 

So I run the fix first, then install the codec pack? I can do that.

 

That's how I did it; trust me, I'm Bingless :-D

 

Thanks!

 

So that means once we merge the registry file, from now until the end of time we shall be "bingless"? (as someone else put it)

 

App could give an option to install Bing or not ? Bit my tongue on this one, and see it has come up. I have started using K-Lite, but had always used Sharks codec packs before this. First things I usually remove with Revo on a machine I am working with is the toolbars.

 

Well, unless you observe the Mayan calendar "until the end of time" is quite a hard guarantee to expect.

As I stated, there has been 4 or 5 version updates since I merged the registry fix; I have not had a single instance of the Bing bar trying to install.