Spyware-free XnView, IrfanView?

[PS85]

Dell Optiplex 170L, 1.25 RAM, Windows XP Home


I've used XnView for quite a few years, and can use IrfanView in a pinch. Trouble is, those programs seem to come loaded with spyware, bloatware and something horrible called Conduit which I have gotten on the computer before and seems impossible to get off.

I have discovered Revo Uninstaller and it's great, but I would rather steer clear of Conduit and similar programs if possible.

I would prefer XnView or IrfanView, but if not available w/o problems, does anyone know of any similar programs I can download without spyware or bloatware?

 

[SparkyJJO]

Just make sure to uncheck all those boxes for the junk.

 

[biostud]

Xnview works fine for me, no bloatware.

 

[taq8ojh]

Threads like these make me want to repeatedly facepalm into a concrete wall with significant force.

 

[PS85]

A few weeks ago I tried downloading XnView and it seemed I was inundated. Maybe I made a mistake and it was something else. Now that I've reformatted I didn't want to take a chance on loading up. I'll try it again.

 

[taq8ojh]

It helps to download files from the original source.

 

[SparkyJJO]

It helps to download files from the original source.

This.

I avoid Download.com like the plague anymore because of excess garbage, and now even Sourceforge is starting to do it with some downloads

 

[taq8ojh]

and now even Sourceforge is starting to do it with some downloads

You don't mean their awesome "installer" bundled with sh*tware (not even malware, just flat out crap) by chance?

 

[ninaholic37]

I also downloaded Irfanview from the official site and it came with spyware that was difficult to bypass while trying to just install the program. Turns out I clicked on one of the "Mirrors" instead of the "download button" above it (which I didn't realize was an actual download button because it looked more like just a title/text/ad at first glance). Not sure if the actual download link at the top has spyware too or just some of the mirrors linked on the main page though.

 

[akugami]

What ninaholic37 said. While I download from the official sites for most freeware, you have to be real careful because a nowadays lot of sites will have these download buttons that really link to a 3rd party site. It's annoying but I'm pretty good about spotting this type of stuff when it happens, but I can definitely see how someone can easily miss it. The other thing is look at every screen in the installer and make sure that it's not installing any crapware. And even then that doesn't always help if you consider the shit move that Adobe is doing where the damn crapware checkbox is on the Flash download site and not the installer...

 

[PS85]

Okay I downloaded it, no problems. I've used for many years, don''t know what to do w/o it.

I think the XnView site goes through some freeware/shareware sites, and I must have made a wrong turn a few weeks ago or something because I saw so many crapware options that I shut down the download and went over to Irfanview, which also goes through similar sites to download. I was very careful to avoid downloading too much crapware then went through whatever I did download with Revo Uninstaller. It took time but I got it done. Maybe if went through the pages more skillfully I might have avoided it all in the first place, not sure.

I'm wondering if perhaps back then those third party sites were experimenting with how much crapware they could load on, and might have backed off a little since then, I don't know. I do know that I unchecked Nero when downloading XnView, everything else seems relatively OK.

In the meantime I downloaded GIMP from Sourceforge, which I assumed to be spyware free. It looks great but will take time to learn-now that I have XnView I don't know if I will. Thanks for the warning about Sourceforge-I will be very careful of downloading from them now.

Thanks for all the useful info, very informative about downloading issues.

 

[taq8ojh]

I also downloaded Irfanview from the official site and it came with spyware that was difficult to bypass while trying to just install the program. Turns out I clicked on one of the "Mirrors" instead of the "download button" above it (which I didn't realize was an actual download button because it looked more like just a title/text/ad at first glance). Not sure if the actual download link at the top has spyware too or just some of the mirrors linked on the main page though.

There is no spyware, period (but I would prefer if he didn't bundle that Chrome crap with it).
Some of the "mirrors" are semi-intentionally confusing people though: there seem to be several download buttons, but only one is actually the real thing. I had this problem with the sh.tty Softpedia in past. I wanted to download a program and instead was prompted to install some horrible "cleaner" or whatever.

It also helps to learn what the installer file name is beforehand, and if it differs, immediatelly leave the site you're at.
In Irfanview's case, it is called "iview<version>_setup.exe". Anything else is some fishy piece of sh..

 

[smakme7757]

You don't mean their awesome "installer" bundled with sh*tware (not even malware, just flat out crap) by chance?

I don't think FileZilla is Crapware and it's bundled with the installer.

 

[ninaholic37]

There is no spyware, period (but I would prefer if he didn't bundle that Chrome crap with it).
Some of the "mirrors" are semi-intentionally confusing people though: there seem to be several download buttons, but only one is actually the real thing. I had this problem with the sh.tty Softpedia in past. I wanted to download a program and instead was prompted to install some horrible "cleaner" or whatever.

Just for reference, here was the original post:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=33666604

Apparently it was "AVG Toolbar" that it tried to install along with it.

edit: That TUCOWS link I clicked on was on the irfanview downloads page. I don't remember if the checksums at the top were there before to test for bad affiliates/packages or not.

 

[taq8ojh]

I don't think FileZilla is Crapware and it's bundled with the installer.

Last time it was sort of the other way around - I tried to download Filezilla server, and I got that damn installer bundled with something else

What I was trying to say is that crapware is anything you didn't ask for and have no use for either.

 

[mikeymikec]

Xnview works fine for me, no bloatware.

Ditto. I've downloaded a couple of new revisions since v2 and not had any problems with it.

(eg. bloatware, malware, adware, toolbars, etc)

A knowledgeable friend had problems with FileZilla and bundled crap recently (and he said he went for the zip not the exe), yet I didn't. Really strange. Dodgy download mirrors from say SourceForge?

Out of curiosity, I just tried to download FZ from SF. The exe installer was the SF "Download Manager". I didn't bother going any further with it. The zip looks legit, when I started FileZilla.exe from it, it worked as expected.