HOW TO BEAT OPENCANDY - EASILY! (when installing ImgBurn)

[Surveyor]

I haven't used ImgBurn in a while - had some hardware issues 1 or 2 versions back - so I decided to get the latest version.  I was surprised, as were many others, at the inclusion of "OpenCandy" in the installer, and shocked at the number of strongly negative posts about that.  Let me start off with 2 comments:

1. I think ImgBurn is an incredible project, and worthy of generating a little cash for the author, but
2. I DETEST Adware things that install on my computer.  I don't even like it when Windows tries to go behind my back.

So, I set out to do a little experimenting - in Virtual PC (for safety).  I'm not an expert computer whiz, or a hardcore hacker - just an intelligent guy who wanted to fix a problem.  For the benefit of anybody out there in my position - love ImgBurn, HATE OpenCandy - here's what I learned (and yes, you can BEAT this, keep reading...):

• The wonderful tool 7-Zip can open the installer and extract most (all?) of the necessary files.  ImgBurn, once extracted, will run.
• The scripts for the installer (Nullsoft), however, generate ALL KINDS of (i.e. many) registry keys necessary for proper running of ImgBurn (mostly shell integration).  This means that you probably should use the installer.

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So, to BEAT OPENCANDY, just disconnect your Internet (temporarily)!  Unplug the cable (if you have one), or disable your connection - it's that simple!  OpenCandy exists ONLY because of the Internet and cannot do its job if the Internet is not connected; the DLLs used (placed in a "Local Settings/Temp/nsx3.tmp" folder) test for connection, and just give up if it doesn't exist.  Without the Internet, the installer completes and DOES NOT INVOKE ANY MORE OPENCANDY dialogs.  LIGHTNING UK! has already suggested this, along with the "/NOCANDY" command line switch.  A domain block, as was also suggested, is a little beyond some people, and unnecessary.
*  *  * *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

As a followup, let me say that (from testing) after the first reboot following installation (do it!), the temporary folder and its DLL contents is deleted.  Leave your Internet unplugged or disabled until after the reboot, just to be safe.  Using some other great software (Regshot) confirmed this - nothing remained on my system except that necessary for ImgBurn.  This is what the OpenCandy license (in the installer) says, but I DON'T TRUST THEM.

For the record, LIGHTNING UK! (ImgBurn's author) is correct; you can complete the OpenCandy dialogs and not install anything but ImgBurn, but on MY system, the "Custom Installation" selection appeared to be disabled (i.e. grayed out).  Thats just SNEAKY and UNDERHANDED.  Most people see that and think - "Crap, I CAN'T do a custom installation".  Not true, of course, but an attempt at trickery, in my view.

To LIGHTNING UK!
I appreciate you trying to get a few dollars/pounds for your years of working on ImgBurn.  And OpenCandy is not illegal, or probably not even considered dishonest.  But it CHEAPENS your efforts and reduces your program to a simple carrier for adware, and trouble.  I think of a classically trained actress, with experience in fine drama, whose agent - after 9 successful years - says "Hey babe - youse got to doll yourself up a bit in this business!  Howse about more lipstick and lots of rouge, and a really short skirt would wow the producers!"  So she changes her look to resemble a prostitute.  Ok, maybe she gets a few more roles, but they won't be Shakespeare!  If you (LIGHTNING UK!) are a professional programmer - do you want to be known as the guy who "f'ed up an excellent package" with OpenCandy?  It might hurt your resumé.

- Surveyor

P.S. Just search "ImgBurn" "OpenCandy" to see how this affects your reputation.  I hope you're getting a LOT of dough from OpenCandy...

[Surveyor]

Gentlemen,

 

Just a quick followup to the above post...

 

After a thorough test, I am pleased to say that my tools (Virtual PC, Regshot) report that the /NOCANDY switch used in the installer does not activate OpenCandy, or leave any traces of OpenCandy on my "system".  The downside is, of course, that you must execute the installer from a command line window.  For simplicity, you could rename the installer to just "IBsetup" (or anything else that's simple) and type

IBsetup /NOCANDY

I doubt that capitals are necessary in the option switch, but that is untested.

 

For more information, see http://www.opencandy.com/faqs/#avoid

 

The excellent product ImgBurn is still "open for business".  Cheers,

 

- Surveyor

[Chappy]

Or just use 7zip to extract the ImgBurn files and exe from the install wrapper and avoid all the OpenCandy crap rather effortlessly.

 

Dave

[DickN]

Bit Defender forbids the setup file from existing on my Windows 7 laptop.  It removes the file immediately upon download.

 

On my Vista system, which has ESET and Webroot, Webroot prevents the download from completing, leaving an exe file with .part still appended to the file name.  Vista prevents me from removing the ".part" from the filename, so I tried saving it on a thumb drive and renaming it on my old Windows XP system.  I figured if the file were really incomplete it would get some kind of error when it ran or tried to unpack the binary,  The only alternative was to be online with the antivirus disabled - an unacceptable risk.

 

I made sure the Vista system was offline, then tried running the setup program.  It started, but disappeared from the screen and from the task manager's list while I was reading the license agreement.  I hadn't even gotten to the part about OpenCandy.   There was no error message.  Then I tried stopping Webroot and running it again.  The installer ran to completion.  Being offline also prevented OpenCandy from popping up its option box, or else the download really was incomplete and somehow the process terminated without an error (very unlikely).  I ran ESET to verify that no candy crumbs were left behind.

 

Referring to the screenshot by the initial poster, "Recommended by ImgBurn" tells the world that you endorse the software that OpenCandy is installing.  You're endorsing a product apparently without even knowing in advance what it is and, more likely than not, having never tried it.  You're putting your reputation on the line for it, gainsaying the disclaimer in the license agreement.  Doesn't that make you a little nervous?

 

I doubt most people would go to this much trouble to install a program against the efforts of their antivirus, nor would I if I weren't a long-time user in need of an update.  I'd read somewhere (probably in the forum) that there's a way to tell ImgBurn to actually compare data when verifying a CD, and I couldn't find that option in the version I was using.  I had a CDRW that verified OK but played like a grungy record even in the PC on which I'd burned it.  Then I tried verifying it again and it still verified OK.  I use CDRWs for temporary media when I'm going to make copies on the duplicator at church, and the duplicator gave me all blank CD's!  I was even able to reuse them.

 

Now if I can just find that setting to make verify actually check the data...

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Verify mode will compare against an image file if you have one.

 

Beyond that, it just checks every sector of the disc is readable.

 

You'd have to examine the graph data file to look for any weird slowdowns in order to see if the drive had trouble reading it (but was able to recover and therefore no errors were reported).

[dbminter]

I tried using 7-Zip to extract the installer but that didn't work.  So, I just fell back to my go to default step: just turning off the cable modem.  It's part of my install steps for Freemake full software installers, too.  So, OpenCandy can't phone home for crapware installation requests.  Of course, under Windows 10, there is a slight difference.  It takes longer for the executable to actually start after failing to phone home.