The Computer Corner

By Charles Miller, Jan 26, 2007

An apple a day …

For about the third time in the last year, I was the victim of the same “drive-by install.” For those Atención readers not familiar with the term, “drive-by install” is a term we in the IT industry use to refer to unauthorized software, often installed surreptitiously without the user’s knowledge or consent.

A lot of disreputable websites use drive-by installs to sneak malware or junk software onto the hard disks of unsuspecting visitors. This technique is used by identity thieves and aggressive advertisers, as well as other assorted crooks and scammers.

Drive-by installs can install unwanted adware on your computer to inundate you with pop-up ads. Drive-by installs can also install spyware to report on your web surfing habits or key loggers to steal your bank account numbers and passwords.

In my case, the culprit was a name a lot of people will recognize: Apple Computer.

You see, Apple Computer distributes its QuickTime browser plug-in used to view “.mov” video files found on some websites. It is nice of Apple to make this software, QT for short, available for free, but I am not alone in saying that Apple’s methodology leaves a lot to be desired.

A properly designed browser plug-in is unobtrusive. When you need it, the software will start automatically, and when you are finished with it, the plug-in will shut itself down until the next time it is needed.

The Apple QuickTime plug-in is nothing like this. Once installed on your Windows computer, it installs itself as an auto-run entry in the registry, so that it starts up and runs a tray icon every time your computer is turned on.

Never mind that I only need to use the program rarely, only once every few months. Every time I use it, the darn tray icon reinstalls itself as an auto-run entry. It then takes up about 1 to 2 megabytes of memory and slows down my computer.

I find it annoying that the Apple programmers who wrote this software are so arrogant as to think I need to constantly waste some of the resources of my computer by keeping their program running at all times. As I mentioned earlier, I need to use it only once in a blue moon.

I can right-click on the QT tray icon and shut the program down, then use MSCONFIG to disable the program—but the next time I use QT to play a video, it checks for changes and undoes what I did to remove it.

Average users who want to uninstall QuickTime are out of luck. Do not bother looking under the “Add/Remove Programs” icon in the Windows Control Panel—there is often nothing there. In another example of their arrogance, the Apple programmers deliberately omitted a method to uninstall their program.

The reason I inveigh so against Apple is that what they are doing by forcing the annoying tray icon on users is entirely unnecessary. Their browser plug-in used to play videos works just fine without the aggravating tray icon taking up memory.

The tray icon has been blamed for such problems as computers not starting correctly, or not being able to shut down. It has been known to cause Microsoft Internet Explorer to crash, and some users claim to have experienced problems using their CD-ROM or sound systems after installing QT. Most troubling of all is the allegation that QT spies on the user and sends information to apple.com about the movies you watch.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ@SMAguru.com