275442 - Viewpoint apparently installed without my knowledge

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(Thunderbird :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Bob Lidral]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Build Identifier: Mozilla Thunderbird/Viewpoint

An unexpected Viewpoint popup window, "You have just been Updated", appeared 
on my desktop during an extended period of activity when neither Firefox nor 
Thunderbird was active.  When I tracked down the Viewpoint folder (directory 
for people who use real operating systems) in the "Program Files" folder, I 
discovered the Viewpoint folder was created at the time I installed 
Thunderbird.  Since I did not explicitly install Viewpoint, I must assume it 
occurred as part of the Thunderbird installation.

I do not appreciate "stealth" installations and I find Viewpoint especially 
offensive now that they have teamed with Unicast -- a company that regularly 
pollutes my desktop with unblockable popup ads.  Products with "stealth" 
installations are notorious for including adware and spyware and I already 
have enough of that polluting my system and slowing it down.

At the very least, there should have been a more explicit warning that I was 
installing Viewpoint with an option to decline -- or it should be more 
prominently mentioned on your web site.  When I visit the Microsoft web site, 
I don't have any trouble finding descriptions of the "Windows Media Player" 
and the RealOne player does not install itself without explicit permission 
from the user.  If it's part of your Thunderbird product (which would be 
strange since it's a browser plugin) or a default part of your installation, 
you should mention it on your web site.

On the off chance Viewpoint piggy-backed onto your Thunderbird installation, 
please investigate that.

Reproducible: Didn't try

Steps to Reproduce:
1. The window just showed up on its own.
2.
3.



Expected Results:  
Viewpoint should never have been installed without my explicit permission.

Comment 1

[Jo Hermans]

Thunderbird doesn't secretly install Viewpoint. I swear.

Comment 2

[Jo Hermans]

Note: Viewpoint seems to be part of Netscape 7 (a commercial browser based on
Mozilla 1.4). Aren't you confusing with that ?

Comment 3

[Jo Hermans]

Verified in private mail :

First, thanks for your incredibly quick replies.  I appreciate it.

As it happens, I am familiar with Netscape and recently upgraded from
Netscape 4.72 to Netscape 7.2 -- just a few weeks before installing
Firefox and then Thunderbird.  In fact, I use Netscape for outgoing email.

However, I keep a log of the dates and times I install software and
updates (except for Microsoft Windows updates -- there are just too many
of those to bother writing down).  I also create System Restore points
before and after significant installations -- as I did for both Firefox
and Thunderbird.

So, I checked the time stamps on the subfolders in "Program Files" and
discovered the time stamp on the Viewpoint subfolder was very close to
that on the Thunderbird subfolder (but not to the time stamp on the
Netscape subfolder).  At the time, I was not running Netscape (I never
run it during major installations).

I owe you an apology.  It turns out I was looking at the "Date Modified"
time stamp rather than the "Date Created" time stamp.  When I went back
to check the accuracy of the basis for my bug report, I discovered my
error.  I thought I was being careful to double-check everything before
filing a complaint.  Regrettably I was not as careful as I should have been.

Sorry to have used up your time with a false bug report.

Thanks again for your very quick responses.