My version of uTorrent just advised me to upgrade, from 3.1.3.27443 to 3.3.0.29625. I noticed a wide variety of unfavorable aspects of the upgrade/installation. I wanted to post it here and see if anyone else has noticed the same.
IMHO, uTorrent has totally jumped the shark. This used to be my go-to BitTorrent client. Now it’s just a piece of bloatware garbage.
As of May 2013, the most current version of µTorrent (3.3.0.29625) includes advertisements displayed in the lower left of the client which can be disabled by unchecking Options>Show Plus Information.
An additional horizontal advertisement bar has been added below the Toolbar that was not present in earlier versions (e.g. 3.1.3.27443), which can NOT be disabled. This bar contains advertisements for products such as “SpeedUpMyComputer”. The format of the horizontal advertisement bar is such that it strongly resembles the transfer status of active torrents, including Status, Health, and Rating Stars all located directly above the corresponding torrent columns.
Here’s a picture of the offending ad bar.
In case you can’t tell, the advertisements are the bit in tan/yellow. Yeah, that’s right. It looks EXACTLY like the actual torrent software.
Related to the Installation and License Agreement,
In the most current version of uTorrent (3.3.0.29625), the License Agreement contains language related to the installation of several additional pieces of software which contain features very similar to spyware and/or bloatware.
The “Full Installation (Recommended)”, which is selected by the installation software as the default option, will
* “Install the Toolbar including Value Apps”
* “Set my default search and home page to Conduit search.”
* “Install and enable Search Protect to notify of changes.”
The additional optional components have a corresponding additional EULA, including
* “Value Apps may include Conduit apps and third-party apps.”
* “Conduit is not responsible for the practices of third parties.”
* “In addition to Value Apps, other apps may access, collect and use your personal data, including your IP address and the address and content of web pages you visit.”
A “Custom Installation” option may be selected, after which the optional components may unchecked.
Has anyone else noticed this annoying downgrade during the upgrade process?
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BMG World 