Free Software Is Costing Me Too Much - Comments Page 1

thank you, thank you, thank you, Bob

And there, at the end of your article, under the heading "Shop Related Products" appears: "IObit Uninstaller 4 [Download]." Obviously an ad but quite ironic! They have you (Bob) advertising a product you are now boycotting!

AMEN!!

I agree with your assessment and solution, Bob. I have been satisfied with using (and depending on) Windows Defender. Independent reviewers have had favorable attitudes toward Windows Defender, which doesn't have those irritating "buy more" messages. The constant "repair" of Windows 10 is another topic...

NO problems with Kasperskys products. Works 100 % and Kaspersky have NO backdoors to NSA and others who spies on ordinary people !

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ari, I've seen you bang this drum before. But where is the evidence to support your claims of "backdoors to the NSA" in anti-virus products? And how can you claim to know for sure that none exist in Kaspersky products?

Because I know how particular you are about spelling, punctuation, etc. (as am I), please correct “or use and IObit product” to say “or use an IObit product”. Respectfully, Michtrixie PS: I agree about iObit.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks! Fixed.

For months, McAfee Web Advisor (or whatever they call it...) ran inconspicuously on my machine. A couple of days ago, it popped up a nag dialog. Five minutes after that dialog appeared, Windows uninstaller (via Control Panel) had mostly removed it, and I annihilated a remnant folder in the Program Files tree.
Incidentally, I exiled IOBit years ago. It was obnoxious. Sorry, I forget specifics.

I have even seen this with Microsoft now. I enjoy playing Solitaire on Windows 10 but find it irritating that I get a nagware screen to log into their site and register. I cannot continue the game until I click on it and fiddle around until it goes away.

Hi Bob,
Just wanted to add my agreement to your comments about iObit. I've subscribed to their services for years (maybe from an early recommendation of yours). But recently (starting a couple of year ago?) it has gotten harder and harder to use because of all of the pop up requests to purchase another product, or a pro version of an existing product. And they have so many products and grades of products that it's easy to get lost in the sea of names.
And the language they use for the upgrade often sounds just like a free update, until you click and are sent to their marketing page. Today they are offering us a $.00 priced upgrade to their new "Driver Booster 6 PRO." But when you click on it, it is free only during the trial period. There's nothing illegal about that, it's just frustrating that they (and many others, by the way), can't be more straight about what is a free offer and what is not.

In a recent response to an article, I mentioned that IOBit (It's on my computer at your recommendation) got rid of every trace of Avast that was unintentionally installed during installation of CCleaner. I have the free one, so I think that I'll keep it. At least, up to a point. I haven't gotten too many nags yet. I don't think that I am 146% smater, but you are successfully chipping away at my technological ignorance. Thanx, Bob.

Bob,

RE: Advanced System Care Pro developed by iOBit.

I got tired of them over a year ago. The ongoing software/ money asking was part of it. But after a number of years I started to think that their solutions were actually working against my computer running smoothly.
So when the renewal came up last year I cancelled the renewal with them directly and did not provide any updated charge card. I thought that was it. I was very surprised when the payment processor (i.e., Avangate) had a 2nd renewal for this product that I forgot about and they went back into my old Paypal account for payment. Anyway, I just recently have ended this renewal path.
Kevin

What I have found....
Advanced System Care is impossible to completely remove from your windows system.
Use your favorite uninstaller.
Now go ahead and look in file manager (file explorer)...now try to delete any thing you see from Iobit.
Short of a complete Windows re-install, you will not be able to delete a couple of Iobit's files.
That in itself kind of bugs me.
On the plus side...
Advanced system Care (Free) is just fine for speeding up my laptop.
I don't think I would pay for anything I can get for free that works good enough for me.
Finally, I agree with Jonathan that Defender is good enough for protection and Iobit is good enough for free.

I am starting to see Bob becoming more and more frustrated with Windows software. We just might see him switch over to the dark side with Linux.

Hi Bob,

I feel for you. You expressed it better than I could have expressed it!!

By the way, great link for creating an apology!!!

Thanks again!!

Don't know about iOBit but Corel has developed a bad habit of pushing an ad for their newest and greatest to the Windows message window even when I'm not using their product (PaintShop Pro). Not a good description but a message pops up in the lower right hand corner of the screen. There is no click here to stop this nonsense button. I don't recall giving them permission to push messages to me, but I probably missed some check box.

Well, to be honest, I paid for ASC in the past year based on what seemed to be your endorsement of the product! I do appreciate what you have to say in this article as I too have been thinking along the same lines every time I get yet another iObit popup trying to sell me on additional features. I recently stopped paying for it and using it. Well, I hope I'm not paying for it! You cannot easily find any way to sign in to an iObit account to check! Yet another example of how they are running a con on subscribers and users?

Well, to be honest, I paid for ASC in the past year based on what seemed to be your endorsement of the product! I do appreciate what you have to say in this article as I too have been thinking along the same lines every time I get yet another iObit popup trying to sell me on additional features. I recently stopped paying for it and using it. Well, I hope I'm not paying for it! You cannot easily find any way to sign in to an iObit account to check! Yet another example of how they are running a con on subscribers and users?

I use IObit Uninstaller (free), Advanced SystemCare (free) and multiple other "free" programs from many sources. I hardly ever get nags, popups, etc. I must admit though, that I have so much "stuff" that blocks other "stuff" on my Win 10 computers(anti-ads, -popups, -etc., -etc.), that I might just not be seeing them. Or, after a great many years of using computers, even noticing them, if they're there. (Selective mental blocking?) Also, I get around 650 new emails (average) at my main (most used) email account daily. The first thing I do is go down the list (without opening any) and delete about 500 of them. So, except for lost time, I'm not bothered by email begging or tricks. (By the way, I have far fewer programs like these on my Linux computers.)

iObit and I parted ways long ago because of this type of behavior. I used Iolo System Mechanic and it's advanced uninstaller to get rid of iObit since it doesn't get completely removed without extensive registry editing.

Took you long enough! I purged all iObit and Malwarebytes products from my system a couple of years ago and wondered when you would become as fed up as I was. I run Kaspersky, but not for any conspiracy theorist reasons, It is consistently rated at or near the top in both blocking things I don't want on my computer and correspondingly low on false positives. Plus when the Russians the over for good I'll be in on the ground floor! ;-)