Warning to All…

I just want to warn everyone that I can get in touch with about an incident that just happened to me. I don’t want any of my family or friends to go through what I’m now going through. First before I get into my warning a brief history.

If you have read my previous blogs I was offered a 5 month internship to work for the Department of Defense (DOD) in Germany. I had purchased a laptop so that after I got there and got everything set up I could Skype with my loved ones in the States. The laptop is great, not perfect, but I don’t think anything will be, I’m satisfied with it with minor complaints that I can either deal with or live with. One is that the computer came with roughly 40 gigs of sample programs (hidden somewhere on the drive). I spent a couple of weeks setting up the computer to my liking before I left for Germany. I didn’t have the time to go through the free software that the computer company put on, I figured I would have time in Germany which I started doing. I would look at what the software, Google it, and if I didn’t like it delete it (long process).

I found one that interested me. The name of the software was ooVoo (a Skype type program), the company by the same name. All of the information that I looked at talked about how good the package was. So I installed it. It was a program that is a Skype type program stating that I could conference up to six people at once, great video and sound, with my family size I figured I could get most if not all at the same time thus saving me the problem of one-on-one Skyping (Skype has conferencing, but I haven't tried it). Reasonable, at least I thought. ooVoo said it was free, well it is you get a free trial (didn’t look into it far enough to see for how long). I don’t know if all features promised you are included in the trial period. What I did notice was when I went into my browser ooVoo changed all my settings to the settings they wanted me to have, i.e. ooVoo toolbar, homepage set to bing, and such. I was more than a little upset, after spending about 2.5 weeks getting the computer the way I wanted and like it who wouldn’t be. No problem I told myself, so I went in and uninstalled the program (wasn’t free anyway), opened my browser (Foxtrot) and noticed that the toolbar was still there. Went back and uninstalled the toolbar. Opened my browser the ooVoo toolbar was still there. The Win7 uninstall program seems to have just uninstalled the toolbar name from the uninstall program because it is not there. Looked in Google on how to uninstall the toolbar and ooVoo’s tech explained how to uninstall the program, I did it that way but still the toolbar is there. I checked it off my view, but I can’t uninstall it as of yet. I went back and read everything that the tech put on his reply to the uninstall question (now for the warning) he said you should have read the small print because there is a small toggle in there that will allow you not to install it. I’m not going to back in to reinstall it to find out how small or big the toggle is. I’m just going to let everyone know not to install the program (doesn’t matter how great the program is).

I figured that I would restore my computer from the restore files that I created. I figure that I would do a restore backup in case something like this happens. The files have been erased, apparently ooVoo figures that if someone doesn’t want their product and the way they configure their computers they will just mess you up big time. Now I wonder what else they placed on my computer. I would just set the computer back to the original setup and loose the 2.5 weeks of setting up, but I left my backup disks at home, plus I would lose all the data files that I have created in the past few weeks. The way I figure ooVoo owes me the amount of money that they give their top computer techs for 120 hours work to set up the computer in the first place plus the amount someone would charge to wipe the hard drive and get the computer back to the way it was when I bought it. I will now start going through and putting all my data onto flash drives so that when I get home I can fix the problem.

I would like everyone who reads this not only to check the web about the product but also check to see what people have experienced uninstalling the product. If there is at least one negative remark about a product don’t install it, unless you have very reliable source about it.

At least I now have something else to keep me occupied here in Germany. Thanks ooVoo or should I say VOODOO (the black magic)!

Until next time - The only reason people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.