Nag Screens

[andyh]

Why is it that when you download a shareware application that is on say a 30 day trial that when the trial period expires you cant use add/remove pgms or use an uninstall utility and then either download it again or at least get rid of the nag screen? do i have to look at a screen every time windows starts up telling me that my trial period has expired for the rest of my life ?

thanks

 

[Alt255]

Andy, that's usually because the program takes despicable liberties with your registry. I hate this tactic, not because it helps to protect some poor programmer's interests (we deserve any break we can get), but because it contributes to the boogered-up mess that Microsoft calls the registry.

Anybody who has tried a number of time-limited shareware titles can find countless orphaned entries in the reg. "Add/Remove" programs will not remove them because they aren't part of the Microsoft application registration scheme. The Windows registry fixer won't touch them because the are actually valid entries.

I find this scheme to be truly offensive. Software developers have a right to protect their work... that's fine. Software developers often need to write to the Windows registry... that's fine too. Software developers have a moral obligation to allow a customer the right to return his system to its original condition when he declines to buy a software title.

I think that should be our mandate.

This discussion really belongs in the Ethics and Information Technology forum. Does anybody care to raise the question there?

Alt255@Vorpalcom.Intranets.com
​

 

[andyh]

thanks for the advice, food for thought!

 

[Karl Blessing]

Other than the mess it can leave on your system, typically you should honor software by agreeing to pay for it, if you have to use it past it's "Trial" period, it is an evaulation, they're not giving it away for free.


Karl
kb244@kb244.com

http://www.kb244.com

Experienced in : C++(both VC++ and Borland),VB1(dos) thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, HTML, Visual InterDev 6(ASP(WebProgramming/Vbscript)

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