Download confusion

[Yankeese]

At the risk of irritating forum members with something that has already been commented on, I would like to reiterate that there is some unnecessary confusion on the ImgBurn webpage. I have been using computers since 1981 and CP/M, and I am very careful when it comes to downloading and installing software. Yet I still had a major problem with my new Windows 8 laptop caused by a rogue program I downloaded by mistake from the ImgBurn site. In fact, I have not solved the problem yet.

 

I always set a system restore point and perform a separate registry backup with Resplendent Registrar before I download new software, even when I trust it. (I trust ImgBurn because I've been using it for years on my old computers.) I did so in this case. It was late at night, I was tired, and I missed seeing that the "download" button I hit was not the one for ImgBurn itself. The rogue program started trying to install itself and all sorts of other programs. I was too committed to the install to back out, so I let it finish, then removed the program and restored the system to its previous state (using System Restore) and reloaded the saved registry using Resplendent Registrar. I then went back to the site and downloaded/installed ImgBurn itself.

 

At this point everything seemed okay. My usual procedure seemed to have worked. But this was May 3, and now, almost 2 months later, I discovered that the Software Protection service has been corrupted in the registry. The "Restart Service" sub-service keeps trying to restart the main service every 30 seconds. I happened to be checking the Event Viewer, which I don't do that often (from now on I will), and there were 17,000 entries of this! The Event Viewer was choking on the volume. I traced the timing, found when the system had started logging these events, and discovered it was between the installation of the rogue program and ImgBurn. The restore process had not been successful in restoring the registry key that the rogue program had corrupted.

 

I have now been fighting this issue for over a week. I had to pay Lenovo $90 for the system discs and a Premium Service ticket, which I am about to invoke, since I'm out of other options. The solutions I've found on the internet are listed only on IT Professional forums; they require certain files from the installation discs which, as listed on the forums, apply to Win 7 and not Win 8. I've run complete virus and malware scans. The virus scan found nothing; the malware scan found 4 objects, which I removed, but none of which had anything to do with this problem. I think the rogue program simply corrupted the registry.

 

I have not yet donated to the program, but plan to do so, and still will, because it is so useful. But I really do wish you could find a way to clear up the download page on the website. Part of what confused me is the fact that on my old computers I have internet ads blocked, so on your site some of these rogues don't show up. Then, on the new computer, I was trying to run fast and light, so I didn't put any internet ad blocking in place. That is why the rogues showed up. When I put ad blocking in place later, they showed as "advertisement" on the page, which alerts users to stay away.

 

Right now I am utilizing a kludge workaround when I boot up. I open the Task Manager when I boot up, make sure the Software Protection Service is turned off, then do a System Restore. Usually when I open the "System" folder this restarts the SPP. Then I turn it off again, and it stays turned off while I'm working. This is the only way I can avoid the 30-second loop in the Event Viewer (and it does slow the computer down, by the way).

 

Sorry for this wordy post (my first on this forum) but I'm trying to show a rationale, without being emotional, for coming up with a better way of presenting this very useful product. I'm attaching a screen shot of the download page that resembles the one I was looking at late that night. I'm not sure it's the same rogue program, but as you can see, the great big "Download" button is hard to avoid. When someone is tired, as I was, and doesn't keep scrolling down, mistakes are easy to make. (Scrolling down is another factor. This is my first 16x9 screen; on my old 1600x1200 screen, with 4:3 aspect ratio, I could see the whole page at once.)

Edited July 2, 2013 by Yankeese

[cornholio7]

first, your screen is of the 'news' page.

the official download page is here http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download

 

 

 

hope this helps

 

[Yankeese]

It does help, thanks. Or I should say it will help in the future. On my other machines, where I already had ImgBurn installed, I would go to the download page for updates, which I think is the page you just posted. But on the new computer, I was searching from scratch, so I went to the page that was brought up by my search engine (Bing, since IE 10 won't let you make Google your default search engine). That's another piece of the puzzle, how this could happen when someone is changing computers and installing to a new system. I know that ImgBurn isn't the only software with this problem. I downloaded a utility through CNet a while back that loaded some piece of always-running software I didn't want, and I took the whole thing off. Consequently, I never download anything from CNet because of that. I know there is a tradeoff when downloading free software, even when it is trialware. But I don't like alien utilities I don't need invading and clogging up my system, and this episode is a case in point. Anyway, thanks for posting the reply.

[ianymaty]

IE 10 won't let you make Google your default search engine

http://www.iegallery.com/en-us/Addons/Details/813

 

Click on Add to Internet Explorer

 

Activate both boxes and click Change

[Yankeese]

Thanks for that. I guess I made the wrong assumption that the restrictions on the IE Win 8 app and the Win 8 phone also applied to the desktop IE.  However, that said, I changed to Google and searched for ImgBurn, and it also took me to the News page. That is always the first page, I guess. I didn't click on the "download" tab. Part of being tired. I tell myself not to install software when I'm tired, because this is the type of trouble that can result, but sometimes when I'm on a roll I want to finish what I've started. I'm dealing with the registry issues on other forums, but I thought people here should be aware how dangerous it can be to let that other software hijack their downloads.