IZArc 4.1.7 bundles Conduit crrap

[John Corliss]

Today I decided to update my copy of IZArc, so I went to the program's
home page to download the setup file for ver. 4.1.7. On the download
page, I noticed that there is a link which says "About false virus
alerts", so I clicked on it. It took me to a website for something
called "betterinstaller" where they were protesting that their installer
was "clean software". I went back to the IZArc download site and
downloaded what was supposedly the IZArc 4.1.7 setup file. Then I UEed
the file and noticed that it's contents consisted only of something
named "biclient.exe" (obviously BetterInstaller Client) along with a
config.ini file consisting only of the following lines:

[config]
affiliate_id = izarc417
software_id = izarc417
software_name = IZArc 4.1.7

I ran the IZArcInstall.exe file (which was actually biclient.exe with a
config file) though VirusTotal and came up with the following dreadful
results:

https://www.virustotal.com/file/c412313241e063479bf65e39b40a6ed498866d2c261ad1a71df04d57521c2680/analysis/

or:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/b55ysn2

In spite of this, I decided to try to use it to install IZArc's newest
version, but only after some precautions. I first set a Restore Point in
System Restore, then I monitored the installation with Total Uninstall 2.35.

The "betterinstaller" thing immediately tried to trick me into
installing a version of Conduit Toolbar named "Somoto toolbar" and to
change my home page. There was a long, boring and difficult to read EULA
for Conduit, which I was able to find online here:

http://somoto.ourtoolbar.com/eula/

Notice that the text is slightly dark gray on a gray background,
designed to make it hard for you to read the text of the document.
Luckily for me, I have a bookmarklet which turns such things into dark
black text on a white background. I read the thing with disgust, then
(not that I wouldn't have anyway) opted for the custom install,
unchecked all the bundled crap and then pressed the "Next" button.

Instead of proceeding to set up IZArc, I instead got a message which
said the following:

"The Somoto toolbar is a free app that gives you fun facebook emoticons,
weather, games and easy web searching while preserving your search
preferences. By installing Somoto toobar, you enable us to generate
advertising revenue to support our free products.

To continue, please click OK to install the Somoto toobar and make
Somoto your default search engine and homepage."

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/q5hfc

There were two buttons, one was a bright green "OK" button and the other
was what appeared to be a grayed out cancel button. I decided to see if
the cancel button was disabled, and lo and behold it wasn't. However
when I pressed it, rather than proceed with the installation of IZArc as
I expected, I was presented with another otherwise identical offer to
install another version of the Conduit crapware which was this time
named "Delta toolbar". I again selected the custom install, again
removed the checkmarks and again clicked on a grayed out "cancel" button.

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/lv3ms

At that point, I was once AGAIN presented with an offer to install the
Conduit crapware under yet ANOTHER name, this time "WhiteSmoke Community
Toolbar".

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/56tu8

Once AGAIN I selected "Custom installation" and deselected the crapware,
then pressed the "Next" button. This time, it finally installed IZArc,
thankfully, without the Conduit crapware.

If I wasn't experienced at installing software, I would very likely have
messed up and installed the Conduit garbage.

I sent an email to IZArc's author, telling him that he was making a
serious mistake by associating his fine program with that kind of sleazy
installation bundleware. Probably won't do any good though.

In the end, because of a bug which hadn't been dealt with in the newer
version, I decided to get rid of IZArc and go with Bandizip instead:

http://www.bandicam.com/bandizip/

That program isn't as fully featured as IZArc, but it will do. It has a
really fast algorithm for compressing to .zip, MUCH faster than IZArc's,
and doesn't seem to have as many bugs as IZArc either.

In the mean time, I would advise others to steer clear of IZArc until
the author gets his rectal-cranial inversion treated and drops the
bundled Conduit (IMO) adware-spyware.

--
John Corliss BS206. No ad, CD, commercial, cripple, demo, nag, share,
spy, time-limited, trial or web wares, OR warez for me, please: just
freeware- which I define as legally obtainable, local install computer
programs that can be used indefinitely at no cost, monetary or otherwise.

Simply filtering out any message with b7r7tn in the "From" header will
remove an incredible amount of the trolling from this group for you.

[Dustin and Duck Fart, PSC]

On Feb 5, 3:25 pm, John Corliss <q34ws...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Today I decided to update my copy of IZArc, so I went to the program's
> home page to download the setup file for ver. 4.1.7. On the download
> page, I noticed that there is a link which says "About false virus
> alerts", so I clicked on it. It took me to a website for something
> called "betterinstaller" where they were protesting that their installer
> was "clean software". I went back to the IZArc download site and
> downloaded what was supposedly the IZArc 4.1.7 setup file. Then I UEed
> the file and noticed that it's contents consisted only of something
> named "biclient.exe" (obviously BetterInstaller Client) along with a
> config.ini file consisting only of the following lines:
>
> [config]
> affiliate_id = izarc417
> software_id = izarc417
> software_name = IZArc 4.1.7
>
> I ran the IZArcInstall.exe file (which was actually biclient.exe with a
> config file) though VirusTotal and came up with the following dreadful
> results:
>

> https://www.virustotal.com/file/c412313241e063479bf65e39b40a6ed498866...

John, who's sporging you? Bear? Or is it a ghost of Ron May? Maybe
Hummingbird and May are collaborating??!! I bet Haby is behind every
sock.
Do you believe how evil Haby is?
ADVISE.

[Mr.E]

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 15:25:35 -0800, John Corliss <q34w...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

I also decided against continuing to use IZArc because of this
Slitherware installer.
I am happy with 7zip so far and after the painful removal of all the
IZArc filetype changes the uninstaller does not switch back, I am glad
to be rid of IZArc.
--
Mr.E

[Jim S]

I find that almost all new applications I install contain this and even if
you are vigilant, it gets in
--
Jim S
Tyneside UK
www.jimscott.co.uk
http://geordiecamii.wordpress.com
http://geordiecam.wordpress.com/

[Rod]

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 15:25:35 -0800, John Corliss wrote:

I posted a few months ago about IZArc installing toolbars even when checked
not to install. I had a tough time getting rid of the toolbar -can't now
remember the name. I had used IZArc for many years, but have uninstalled on
all machines I service and have gone to 7zip instead. Maybe the author is
doing this to survive, but eventually he will have nothing left! I urge
everyone to abandon this software.

[John Corliss]

Mr.E wrote:
> (big snip)
> Slitherware installer.

LOL. Never heard that term before. Excellent! Love it!

[John Corliss]

John Corliss wrote:
>
> (Big snip)

> In the end, because of a bug which hadn't been dealt with in the newer
> version, I decided to get rid of IZArc and go with Bandizip instead:
>
> http://www.bandicam.com/bandizip/
>
> That program isn't as fully featured as IZArc, but it will do. It has a
> really fast algorithm for compressing to .zip, MUCH faster than IZArc's,
> and doesn't seem to have as many bugs as IZArc either.

Scratch that! I just removed Bandizip and decided to go with the free
copy of Winrar 3.51 I got from info posted here a long time ago. Works
just fine for me. Bandizip wasn't able to extract a single folder from
an archive, defaulted to extracting everything contained within the
archive instead. That's a pretty huge bug IMO. Winrar doesn't do that.

7-Zip is interesting though. When I first gave it a try, it was new and
had a lot of bugs. Seems like the program's default file compression
method was 7Z and you couldn't change that setting. For various reasons,
I prefer sticking with .zip compression. Also, I like gridlines and full
row select. Don't know if those are available in 7-Zip now.

http://www.7-zip.org

--
John Corliss BS206. No ad, CD, commercial, cripple, demo, nag, share,
spy, time-limited, trial or web wares, OR warez for me, please: just
freeware- which I define as legally obtainable, local install computer
programs that can be used indefinitely at no cost, monetary or otherwise.

Simply filtering out any message with b7r7tn in the "From" header will
remove an incredible amount of the trolling from this group for you.

If I don't come up with a witty repartee, it's probably because I have
you killfiled.

[Rod]

On Fri, 08 Feb 2013 02:30:40 -0800, John Corliss wrote:

> John Corliss wrote:
>>
>> (Big snip)
>> In the end, because of a bug which hadn't been dealt with in the newer
>> version, I decided to get rid of IZArc and go with Bandizip instead:
>>
>> http://www.bandicam.com/bandizip/
>>
>> That program isn't as fully featured as IZArc, but it will do. It has a
>> really fast algorithm for compressing to .zip, MUCH faster than IZArc's,
>> and doesn't seem to have as many bugs as IZArc either.
>
> Scratch that! I just removed Bandizip and decided to go with the free
> copy of Winrar 3.51 I got from info posted here a long time ago. Works
> just fine for me. Bandizip wasn't able to extract a single folder from
> an archive, defaulted to extracting everything contained within the
> archive instead. That's a pretty huge bug IMO. Winrar doesn't do that.
>
> 7-Zip is interesting though. When I first gave it a try, it was new and
> had a lot of bugs. Seems like the program's default file compression
> method was 7Z and you couldn't change that setting. For various reasons,
> I prefer sticking with .zip compression. Also, I like gridlines and full
> row select. Don't know if those are available in 7-Zip now.
>
> http://www.7-zip.org

John,
During the last go around on IZArc, somebody suggested KuaiZip
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/kuaizip.html
I tried it, and it worked pretty well, but I liked 7zip better. Might want
to take a look.

[John Corliss]

Thanks Rod, but I'm very happy with Winrar 3.51. Amazing that I ever
bothered to use IZArc in fact, once I had a copy of Winrar that is. I
looked into its settings and I was able to make the default compression
format .zip instead of .rar. That was alway a concern of mine, but I
never bothered to check out and see if that capability was available in
Winrar.

OTOH, newer version of Winrar are definitely not freeware, although that
version was available for a while. I don't think that the free copy of
3.51 is available any longer either.

[Mike Dee]

John Corliss wrote:

> Thanks Rod, but I'm very happy with Winrar 3.51. Amazing that I
> ever bothered to use IZArc in fact, once I had a copy of Winrar
> that is. I looked into its settings and I was able to make the
> default compression format .zip instead of .rar. That was alway a
> concern of mine, but I never bothered to check out and see if that
> capability was available in Winrar.

Not sure if you're talking about Winrar's default settings or IZArc's
here, John. But if its WinRar's, then you can set the default to .zip
in the program's "Options menu, Settings sub-menu, Create Default".
That is, in WinRar's main application options, not the smaller window
that pops up when you right-click an item to archive it.

> OTOH, newer version of Winrar are definitely not freeware,
> although that version was available for a while. I don't think
> that the free copy of 3.51 is available any longer either.

Yes, I'm still using that old give-away free version, too.

7-Zip tho' is my freeware compression app of choice. I use the
Portable Apps version.Its super fast and creates really good archives
(encrypted too if desired). You still need to manually choose .zip
tho' AFAICT.

--
dee

[John Corliss]

Mike Dee wrote:
> John Corliss wrote:
>
>> Thanks Rod, but I'm very happy with Winrar 3.51. Amazing that I
>> ever bothered to use IZArc in fact, once I had a copy of Winrar
>> that is. I looked into its settings and I was able to make the
>> default compression format .zip instead of .rar. That was alway a
>> concern of mine, but I never bothered to check out and see if that
>> capability was available in Winrar.
>
> Not sure if you're talking about Winrar's default settings or IZArc's
> here,

Sorry, in re-reading what I wrote I can see what you mean. I meant
Winrar's settings. I checked it out yesterday and was able to set the
default compression method in that program, so actually I never really
needed IZArc to begin with.

> John. But if its WinRar's, then you can set the default to .zip
> in the program's "Options menu, Settings sub-menu, Create Default".
> That is, in WinRar's main application options, not the smaller window
> that pops up when you right-click an item to archive it.
>
>> OTOH, newer version of Winrar are definitely not freeware,
>> although that version was available for a while. I don't think
>> that the free copy of 3.51 is available any longer either.
>
> Yes, I'm still using that old give-away free version, too.
>
> 7-Zip tho' is my freeware compression app of choice. I use the
> Portable Apps version.Its super fast and creates really good archives
> (encrypted too if desired). You still need to manually choose .zip
> tho' AFAICT.

Well for me, that's a deal killer. The most common compression format is
.zip, followed by .rar. .7z might be more efficient than both, but it's
never really caught on that well.

[Rod]

With 7zip, on the right click context menu in explorer, you have entries
for both 7z and zip. You can chose from there.

[S.F.]

Op 2013-02-09 09:50, John Corliss schreef:

> Mike Dee wrote:
>>
>> 7-Zip tho' is my freeware compression app of choice. I use the
>> Portable Apps version.Its super fast and creates really good archives
>> (encrypted too if desired). You still need to manually choose .zip
>> tho' AFAICT.
>
> Well for me, that's a deal killer. The most common compression format is
> .zip, followed by .rar. .7z might be more efficient than both, but it's
> never really caught on that well.

I use the install version of 7-Zip and in settings I can select to show
in the (Explorer) contextmenu 'add to ...zip' and to not show 'add to
...7z'. Or when I select the contextmenu item 'Add to archive...' the
dialogbox then shows "zip format" as my default (it is selected).
I don't often compress files myself, but for my use it works like if
.zip is de default.
Also, like you prefer, you can set it to 'full row select' and to show
gridlines, although on my system these are very faint, hardly detectable
even.
I guess that nowadays 7-Zip is by far the most popular freeware
archiver, also for those who will only ever create .zip archives themselves.

--
Cheers,
S.F.

[p-0'0-h the cat]

On Sat, 09 Feb 2013 00:50:55 -0800, John Corliss <q34w...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>Well for me, that's a deal killer. The most common compression format is
>.zip, followed by .rar. .7z might be more efficient than both, but it's
>never really caught on that well.

Everyone I know uses .7z now. It compresses a tad better overall than
.rar and it's free. Works great for large multimedia files > 100 MB. I
use .zip for people I don't know, but long term if large files need to
be transferred I wean them onto .7z or make .7z self extracting SFX.

--
p-0.0-h the cat
Internet Terrorist, Mass sock puppeteer, Agent provocateur, Gutter rat,
Devil incarnate, Linux user#666, BaStarD hacker, Resident evil, Monkey Boy,
Certifiable criminal, Spineless cowardly scum, textbook Psychopath,
the SCOURGE, l33t p00h d3 tr0ll, p00h == lam3r, p00h == tr0ll, troll infâme,
the OVERCAT [The BEARPAIR are dead, and we are its murderers], lowlife troll,
shyster [pending approval]

Taking a break from John Corliss, John Corliss(ES), John.Cor11ss, John-C0rliss,
J0hn Corliss, John C0rl1ss(ES), Jo^hn Corliss, John.Corl1ss, John^Corliss,
Johnny(ES)Corliss, Big John Corliss, John Corliss', John$Corliss(ES),

[John Corliss]

S.F. wrote:

Thanks very much for that info, S.F.!

[S.F.]

Op 2013-02-09 21:40, John Corliss schreef:

YVW, John

--
Cheers,
S.F.

[Mike Dee]

John Corliss wrote:

>> I guess that nowadays 7-Zip is by far the most popular freeware
>> archiver, also for those who will only ever create .zip archives
>> themselves.

I think that it is the best of the freeware bunch. As good, or if not
better than commercial offerings.

--
dee

[Mike Dee]

Oops. I meant to reply to SF's post here. IMHO still standing.

--
dee

[John Corliss (ES)]

Mike Dee wrote:
> John Corliss wrote:

Mike, your attribution is off. I didn't say that stuff above, S.F. did.

[Mike Dee]

John Corliss (ES) wrote:

> Mike, your attribution is off. I didn't say that stuff above, S.F.
> did.

I know, as soon as I'd posted I'd realised my mistake (& acknowledged
it in an immediate follow-up post to myself) :-(

--
dee