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Live Messenger turns 10, MS uses extras download to pimp IE8 and Bing
To celebrate, Microsoft has put together a free download containing emoticons, winks, backgrounds, and other Messenger extras. To see whether or not this was postable, I downloaded both Live Messenger and the pack and installed them.
When you click the download button for the "FREE Gift Pack," you'll not only get the extras, you'll also get a pop-up advertisement pushing IE8. When you start installing the pack, you'll get another poke in the ribs asking you to download the new browser.
And you'll also be prompted to change your homepage to MSN and your default search provider to Bing. Unlike the recent IE8 installer change, this time the options are checked by default. Maybe you really can't teach an old dog new tricks.
On top of all this, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of content in the pack. So what's the real goal here? To say "thank you" to 10 years of use and 330 million users, or to capitalize on the opportunity to wrangle some more browser and search share?
Comments
10
Subscribe to commentsChristian VelasquezJul 23rd 2009 2:09PM
LMFAO
Can't you just kill the process that's going to begging you to install IE8?
or is this only if you don'y have IE8 installed?
or what if you do?
Will it still prompt you to install IE8 even so?
chrisarozJul 23rd 2009 2:18PM
As if trying to download Quicktime is any better....
KururugiJul 23rd 2009 2:37PM
I don't get it. People complain about IE6 being the scourge of the internet, and then when microsoft does everything to push its new, better (even if not by much) browser, then we ridicule them. I think your biases have gotten in the way of your reporting.
AshishJul 23rd 2009 2:46PM
what were you expecting? Free Win7 licenses?
Everybody does it, am pretty sick of unchecking google toolbar install options bundled with so many other softwares.
Did u forget Apple, yes, your darling Apple, force installing safari on unsuspecting itunes updaters?
This whole MS bashing is sometimes nonsense.
Lee MathewsJul 23rd 2009 3:12PM
No, I've ripped on Apple for that before.
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/08/05/5-apps-you-run-that-suck-and-5-replacements-that-dont/
It's a bad practice, regardless of who's doing it.
AshishJul 23rd 2009 5:00PM
I agree, but, when MS does it, it is given a very different spin, all M$, Win95 flaws, virus etc all historical and current slurs are rolled into one.
KingOfGodsJul 23rd 2009 5:21PM
Plus the "Rip" on Apple was in the middle of an unrelated post....... yet MS gets a whole blog post about this?
MollyJul 23rd 2009 5:42PM
"click the download button for the "FREE Gift Pack,"
there is no such thing as free lunch, and most certainly not from Microsoft.
GJul 24th 2009 5:27AM
And this marks 10 years of disabling it on new computers I set up for clients.
markworden7Jul 27th 2009 10:47AM
Hey, after reading this article, I just realized something...
Crazy Frog has been kinda pushing MS's search engine for a while now...
"Bing Bing!"
=)
Sorry...couldn't resist