For those who remember installing Internet Explorer either an an upgrade or fresh install, the process was specifically tailored to replace your default browser settings when electing to use the "Express" installation method. This is no longer the case.
This comes shortly after it was announced that Windows 7 upgrade for UK users would not come with IE 8 preinstalled due to an anti-trust ruling.
What will happen now is that if you choose to install Internet Explorer 8, the first run will be much more straightforward, directly asking you, "Do you want to make Internet Explorer your default browser?"
This is a welcome change that was applauded by not only Windows users but other competing browser software makers, such as Mozilla.
From then to now
Fortunately we now live in a time when most software we install doesn’t try to hijack any settings you don’t want changed. This is drastically different compared to what it used to be like 10 years ago.
For example, in 1999 software like AOL and RealPlayer tried to hijack everything. It was a sad time for computer software back then.
This is not to say that all software stays on the Light Side of The Force. Some titles still do things that are, shall we say, unethical.
Do you know of software that still pulls hijacking tricks?
Let us know in the comments.
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DOS_equis
22. Jul, 2009
Yeah if you install quicktime it will hijack all of your media files as the default player. I just wanted to use quicktime to look at .MOV files since my digital camera records video in the .MOV format. After installing it I noticed it took ownership of all the other media like pictures and other video formats. I don’t remember it asking me about it during the install either. Sure it was simple to change it back to only .MOV but a pain in the a$$ none the less. IE toolbars are another thing some programs like to hijack. I can’t remember which apps actually hijacked their toolbars on IE but it was a few of them and they actually asked during the install, so I declined, and they still added them anyway. I really only use the google search toolbar so all of the other fluff toolbars are a waste of time and HDD space IMO.