Thursday, May 14, 2009

Foxit Reader Goes from Bad to Worse

Several months ago, I reported that people looking to Foxit Reader as a substitute to Adobe Reader had discovered the Ask Toolbar included as a pre-checked, opt-out option.

As illustrated by Paperghost in Why I Flushed Foxit, it appears that by the time the option is presented to accept or decline the Ask toolbar, it has already been installed!

If you are looking for an alternative to Adobe Reader, I suggest one of the open source programs available from http://pdfreaders.org/. In the event you are still using Adobe Reader, be sure to get the latest update.




Remember - "A day without laughter is a day wasted."
May the wind sing to you and the sun rise in your heart...

6 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 14, 2009 at 10:30 PM

    Thanks for the heads up on this Corrine!

    -Clark76

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 14, 2009 at 11:43 PM

    I noted this a while back, but then decided it was I who made the mistake. I figured I only unchecked the "Make Ask,com my default search", but neglected to uncheck the "Foxit Toolbar" (which makes no mention of Ask). Now, i wonder if I was right, in the first place.

    I have to say, since unchecking both boxes (toolbar and search engine) I have yet to have the Ask Toolbar install, and I have installed Foxit on many, many machines, since they have started doing this.

    A better option, if one still wants to use Foxit, is to install the slim version of Foxit, which comes without the toolbar. That can be found here:

    http://www.recuva.com/download/builds

    Also, as noted by the amazing Donna, there is another way to avoid the Foxit toolbar during installation, by choosing the ".msi installer" at the official Foxit site:

    http://msmvps.com/blogs/donna/archive/2009/05/13/if-you-want-to-install-foxit-reader.aspx

    But, I agree with you, Corrine, when it comes to making a stand against these pre-checked installations. I have to experiment with some of the other .pdf readers, so I can stop supporting Foxit.

    -Brian (AKA The Dean)

    ReplyDelete
  3. joe53May 15, 2009 at 12:02 AM

    See this:
    http://msmvps.com/blogs/donna/archive/2009/05/13/if-you-want-to-install-foxit-reader.aspx

    ReplyDelete
  4. CorrineMay 15, 2009 at 9:04 AM

    Paperghost explains in his comment here that it was the Foxit product that installed as soon as the Ask toolbar prompt appeared, with no way to cancel/back out since the deed was already done.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMay 15, 2009 at 11:38 AM

    Thanks for the clarification, Corrine. That makes sense.

    Brian (AKA The Dean)

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownMay 17, 2009 at 9:38 AM

    Thanks for posting about this Corrine. Foxit was one of the first things I installed on a new system, so it is sad to see great software go this route. Fortunately, I have the setup files for an older version, but I will check out some of the other options you mention.

    ReplyDelete

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