Oh Bloat!
I recently installed a new printer. Windows didn't seem to know its driver, so I "had" to supply the CD-ROM that came with the printer. Of course, being a device driver, it asked for admin privileges to install. I went for custom install instead of full, but that option failed and crashed in EMET with a buffer overflow. Not a good omen. But since I wanted to print, I de-selected "custom" and went for "recommended". Yes, I'm naive at times. Apparently, all it takes to "p0wn" me is to ship me a printer together with a CD. [blush].
20 minutes later, I was the proud owner of FOUR pieces of software that have NOTHING to do with printing. What the [beep]! And to add insult to injury, TWO of the four pieces didn't show up in Add-Remove-Programs, and hence could not be "easily" evicted again. The most annoying piece was "isuspm", Acresso Software Manager. Completely getting rid of the four pieces of bloatware required use of Sysinternals "Autoruns", plus generous "del /s /q /f *" at the prompt, plus six! reboots. Yes, I probably could have reverted to a snapshot, but I kinda wanted to keep the printer driver itself.
Hello, dear printer vendors: Charge me 15$ more for the printer, if you must, but stop wasting my time un-installing all that [beeping] [beep]!
If you are in a similar situation, ignore whatever comes with the printer (especially the CD!), go to the web site of the printer manufacturer, and search for the device driver for the model at hand. Somewhat to my surprise, they offered an "expert" install that came without all the crud, and just included the driver. Now .. why can't this minimal installation also be on the CD? Why screw all the poor home users [and naive ISC handlers :)] for no good reason except to make five measly dollars on the side??
Comments
www
Nov 17th 2022
6 months ago
EEW
Nov 17th 2022
6 months ago
qwq
Nov 17th 2022
6 months ago
mashood
Nov 17th 2022
6 months ago
isc.sans.edu
Nov 23rd 2022
6 months ago
isc.sans.edu
Nov 23rd 2022
6 months ago
isc.sans.edu
Dec 3rd 2022
5 months ago
isc.sans.edu
Dec 3rd 2022
5 months ago
<a hreaf="https://technolytical.com/">the social network</a> is described as follows because they respect your privacy and keep your data secure. The social networks are not interested in collecting data about you. They don't care about what you're doing, or what you like. They don't want to know who you talk to, or where you go.
<a hreaf="https://technolytical.com/">the social network</a> is not interested in collecting data about you. They don't care about what you're doing, or what you like. They don't want to know who you talk to, or where you go. The social networks only collect the minimum amount of information required for the service that they provide. Your personal information is kept private, and is never shared with other companies without your permission
isc.sans.edu
Dec 26th 2022
5 months ago
isc.sans.edu
Dec 26th 2022
5 months ago