Yet another flavour of CDBurnerXP

[Flo]

In order to pursue my goal one time working on CDBurnerXP (or more freeware) for a living, I now started a cooperation with Ask and the default CDBurnerXP setup package will be bundled with the Ask Toolbar (optional to install). If the result is as good as expected, we'll continue the cooperation for a longer time span.
Important notes, in order to address some concerns you might have: There still is a setup package without the toolbar available on the download page. The portable and MSI version does not contain the toolbar. The toolbar will not be installed during silent installations. The toolbar can be uninstalled easily, if you accidentially decided to install it. And also important to note is that the toolbar does not contain any spyware, will not negatively impact the usage of your computer and is also not generally considered "adware".
I'll be glad to get your feedback on this undertaking and hope that the way I'm doing this does not meet with opposition too much.

(What about the Google Ads actually? Well, they make a nice amount of money, but it does not suffice for my plans, unfortunately.)

[cdburner user]

I like your software and i use it often. (i don't burn discs so frequently so it's fine to me)
I understand your point to include some other software (toolbars, etc.), but as you already may know, that's something people don't like at all.
Please maintain some "special" build without that kind of adware in a separate link, just in case.

Thank you anyways, and keep up with the good work!

[alexsupra]

first of all thank you a lot for developing this free software. to say the truth
ask toolbar is real adware and thats the fact because it uses system resources via shell extensions installed to windows system shell and file/web browser in advertising purposes. the practical experience, special investigations and experiments show that shell extensions really harmful for system stability, perfomance and even security. especially in cases when windows explorer is used as the main system shell (the most of windows machines) its "extending" means making it more stupid on every step of interaction with user and increasing the chances of crash in any just a little bit critical situation. actually there are not so many magic useful features in this toolbars, reminders, notifiers, updaters, quck starters and many other cheeters... that together consuming all available ram, workspace on the screen and time of cpu and user (this fellow who wants to work or rest a little, but cant do anything with this software freaks and terrible stupidness of computer because of them).
thats the most common result of these massive software advertising attacks brought a lot even by various software application packages, device drivers, etc.
one more disadvantage of this solution is increasement of package size. by the way i still use 4.2.5 for all unattended installs that i'm doing every day from all-in-one cd with high-compressed software applications packages (without useless trash at all, i allready recreated all installers in custom way to provide better user-friendly defaults, to exclude useless trash, etc.), system and users settings, universal drivers packages, etc. in my country the most of computers still havent dvd drives. thus i couldnt use newer version that suddenly increased in size cause i have very little free space on that cd...
but thank you a lot for disabling askware in case of silent setup! =)
portable solution is pretty enough but there is a problem with switching to some other languge than english.
please note that antother free software project clamwin tried the same step and included ask toolbar in their distribution, you may read their blog. it seemed to me that they were a little bit disappointed with this agreement...
thank you for your attention to this information, have a nice day!

[judas_iscariote]

The software will never include malicious components nor spyware of any kind.

It will remain free though there are several things that were never free, like the always growing server/bandwidth/administration costs.

I hope you understand

[mikerr30]

I really like this software myself i had heard about it but until recently never used it. I use it now but would like the software more if it had an equalizer where I can make my recordings sound even better, is this in the future of cdburnxp?

[Flo]

The Ask toolbar only installs into Internet Explorer (or any other web browser) and not into the "shell". So it shouldn't affect your system a lot. If you have any sources that proof otherwise, feel free to post them

Sure though, you may or may not consider the toolbar's feature set as useful. But that's how it works basically, and since you have a choice, I believe that it is an acceptable way of generating revenue without having any users pay for the application.

[alexsupra]

The Ask toolbar only installs into Internet Explorer (or any other web browser) and not into the "shell". So it shouldn't affect your system a lot. If you have any sources that proof otherwise, feel free to post them ;)

Sure though, you may or may not consider the toolbar's feature set as useful. But that's how it works basically, and since you have a choice, I believe that it is an acceptable way of generating revenue without having any users pay for the application.

all extensions installed to internet explorer are installed to windows explorer (even if they are not visible they are installed). windows explorer is not only file manager but it is default windows gui shell. thats why all extensions installed to explorer are called shell extensions.
thats the fact could be easily seen from system registry (after ask toolbar installation) and this screenshot (ask toolbar is allready disabled by me but its seen that it was registered not only to all web browsers found on the moment in system): http://i.imgur.com/ac87Z.png

[non]

you may or may not consider the toolbar's fea

The Ask toolbar only installs into Internet Explorer (or any other web browser) and not into the "shell". So it shouldn't affect your system a lot. If you have any sources that proof otherwise, feel free to post them ;)

Sure though, you may or may not consider the toolbar's feature set as useful. But that's how it works basically, and since you have a choice, I believe that it is an acceptable way of generating revenue without having any users pay for the application.

What kind of idiot would consider the most hated toolbar on the internet useful.
There was a version of this thing that destroyed peoples Operating Systems when uninstalled (check Azureus/Vuze forums if you dont believe me)
Goodbye CDBurnerXP.
People could try InfraRecorder (free & Open Source) it doesnt come bundled with malware.

[Flo]

Please keep in mind though, that it's optional. You don't even have to download an installer that includes the toolbar.

Just out of curiosity: Those who particularily are against the Ask toolbar, is there, in your opinion, any toolbar that's not considered "evil"?

[judas_iscariote]

Note that clamwin is an antivirus, it would be quite strange if an antivirus vendor decides to bundle malicius software with it.

[alexsupra]

Please keep in mind though, that it's optional. You don't even have to download an installer that includes the toolbar.

Just out of curiosity: Those who particularily are against the Ask toolbar, is there, in your opinion, any toolbar that's not considered "evil"?

experiments show that all of wellknown toolbars are not very kind in general... but if you mean more clean, useful and user-friendly oriented alternative i think it could be google toolbar. "dont be evil" =) http://toolbar.google.com

p.s. i just noticed that some software products are bundled with google chrome! if this advertising campaign has similar to toolbars conditions it could be the best solution so far)

[Guest]

I like your software and i use it often. (i don't burn discs so frequently so it's fine to me)
I understand your point to include some other software (toolbars, etc.), but as you already may know, that's something people don't like at all.
Please maintain some "special" build without that kind of adware in a separate link, just in case.

A removal button would also be nice.
How To Remove Toolbar Ask Completely? – Toolbar Ask Removal Instructions

However I urge everyone to stay away from free online scans.
They often add spyware and malware to your registry so you can see how effectively it finds them, but it won't delete them until you buy the shareware version, which may include a call home feature itself!

[Guest]

I forgot to tell you what it will do (as a browser toolbar).
It will redirect favorites and bookmarks to porn sites, gambling sites, and Webcam sites that usually include underage girls in provacitive poses and sexy clothing (Myspace links may be included).
Unless you lock your homepage with a program like SpywareBlaster, it will randomly generate one of these sites as your default homepage.
It is not a serous threat, but can bring you legal consequences.

In applications it will act as a popup generator.
Although not spyware itself, it's like a magnate for malware pages that trick users into giving away private information, such as a pretend Visa or Master Card.

[nascent]

I understand why you chose to do this, even tough I am strongly against it and feel there are many other advertising/sponsorship options available that don't resort to bundling.

However my main issue with these things is having the toolbar to be "installed by default" users should not be punished for just clicking next on the installer, they usually don't know what is needed to run the program or not and will install anything suggested by the installer under the impression the software is needed to run, yes if they spent time reading each screen they'd realise this isn't the case, but not even techies read every screen, when's the last time you read a EULA for example?

So my proposal is this: Please have the toolbar unselected by default in the wizard, that way anyone willing to help out with tick the "isntall ask tooblar" option, and you aren't punishing the tech-illiterate users.

[Flo]

Instructions are not necessary, the only thing you ever need to do is to uninstall it in the "Software" control panel.

It will redirect favorites and bookmarks to porn sites, gambling sites, and Webcam sites that usually include underage girls in provacitive poses and sexy clothing (Myspace links may be included).

No. Proof? This kind of stuff has been explicitly disallowed in the contract I made with Ask (their own requirement). Same applies to the other points you mentioned. All is completely legal, and their won't be any unexpected behaviour.

Please have the toolbar unselected by default in the wizard, that way anyone willing to help out with tick the "isntall ask tooblar" option, and you aren't punishing the tech-illiterate users.

This will not be profitable. If you have any of those "many other advertising/sponsorship options", please name them. I'll not be opposed to trying some of them in the future.