Yeah. Uh-huh. Let's resort to insults because someone who is tech support for an ISP doesn't want to support an Adtools desktop animation that has nothing whatsoever to do with Internet connectivity (rolls eyes).

Allow me to inject something here...
BULLSHIT!!
I've not once seen a course titled "Cleaning up after end users mistakes" on any cirriculum.
There is more to this picture/rant than some of you realize. No,alot of you probaly don't give a shit since you are not an IT support person. This is the type of rant that only an IT support person will appreciate. The rest of the world just sees it as whining.

The types of issues being described here.. DO NOT PRESENT A DAMN CHECKBOX unless (and you're lucky if you even get this)you choose Advanced options for setup. Typical end users will NOT do that as the word Advanced will tend to frighten them away.

If I flip on my television, I am greeted with advertisements and spam. However, nothing breaks my effing remote control because I changed the channel in the middle of one of the adverts.

These software/bloatware companies are simply invading the sanctity of our systems without our permission. Just because I browse the internet, you have no right to fuck with my equipment unless it buys you dinner and a movie first. Otherwise, keep out!

Computers should still be just like cars....the average driver does NOT need to know the thermal dynamics of internal combustion, ATDC valve timing, et al to properly drive a car, but they DO need to know the road rules for automobile use...and achieve/prove competence BEFORE being let loose on the roads.

How about the same with computers.....licence to drive or you push a pen?....

Thank you, Phoon!

I'm cool with that!

Sounds more like a staff problem to me.If they don't know what is wrong or right after being told time after time as you say you have done,then maybe they should be pursuing different careers,maybe counting traffic or sheep herding;anything where they don't have to make a choice as to which box to check/uncheck.Jeez they sound thick.

Already spoken about by others above, but I'll go again here and speak up and say BECAUSE YOU CAN'T just smack around these people and 'learn some sense into 'em.'

Why not?  Well, because in the corporate world they are Chief Operating Officers, Chief Executive Officers, Vice Presidents, Directors, their Administrative Assistants, and other executives that well above your pay grade/scale and who don't report to the IT support staff for anything and will never report to the IT support staff.  Further, because those same people have the same bad attitude displayed as above -- IT'S {INSERT IT STAFF NAME HERE} JOB!  YOU FIX IT!!! -- so they really don't care that their PC gets slower and more bogged down with crap that they themselves installed.  They only care that their PC runs like crap and the people that are supposed to fix it never have time to fix it for them so they start looking for new IT support staff because the current ones always suck, no matter who they are.  What doesn't occur to these people is that the one constant in all of the problems is THEM.  The user.  Well, that constant, and I suppose one more -- companies that write and include all of this bloatware and add-on crap who know that the lemmings out there will never demand change.

And by the way, it's not just the corporate world, it's the academic world, the government world, and even home users that cry for help from their tech savvy relatives and friends.  All of the above have issues, and most of the time drilling the education into the user is impossible.

I cleaned up I don't know how many spyware/crapware/ad-ware/virus infections on my dad's PC for him until he finally took my advice one last time to BUY A DELL.  When it became Dude, I'm getting a deal from Dell, it was no longer my problem.  But it was Dell's problem.  When dad, bless his heart, had problems he called Dell.  He, and a lot of others like him, called Dell enough to help push them into moving their customer services support to India and other outsourced areas, which in turn has driven customers that rarely have issues (and those that call all the time) crazy because they can't get someone that speaks the English language in a way they understand.  Still, it's no longer my problem.

Eventually it won't be Dell's problem either though as they'll just drop support for him and others, or they'll keep it available but charge a small fortune per each call that is made (which is how Microsoft basically works now).

Yeah, that's the future of computing that I want to see keep going, how about you all?

They're already pushing towards paid support as it is.

Bottom line: If I tell you not to install it and you install it anyway, I fail to see how that's MY problem.

Yeah, I could lock the system down pretty good, but guess what they'll be complaining about THEN?!?

terpfan... Say AMEN!
and that's only the START of the issues. We could go on and on with the various political crap that takes place, but.. alas... the crowd would throw mass amounts of cheese at us wouldn't they..   
Next time they have a problem, they can just learn like I did.. RTFM and leave me alone!

Higher pay grade complains of problem and asks me to fix it.
I remove all the crap I told them not to install
They call back months later because it's slow again
I see they have all the same crap
I remind them of the earlier solution and suggest that they need an upgrade/new PC and walk away. 
Problem solved for now.
(Repeat as needed)

I get paid to fix their problems, not learn them or improve their business.  I can try to do my best but they *are* in charge.
If I get too frustrated, I find a new position with new frustrations. 

Back on topic, If I buy a product that has bundle-ware, I reject the bundle, email the vendor with my dissatisfaction and depending on the response (or maybe not even then) start looking for alternatives.  For free software that is bundled . . I don't bother emailing.

Hi Terpfan,you really do have my sympathy if people you give advice/instruction to choose to ignore it and go ahead and install unwanted software regardless.I bow to your superior knowledge of such things,but cripes it sounds like a bit of a nightmare.  Whatever happened to employees just doing as they are told(or shown)?
Hey Phoon,I had no idea what RTFM meant until I looked it up just now,lol   I am enlightened.   

I remind them of the earlier solution and suggest that they need an upgrade/new PC and walk away. Problem solved for now. (Repeat as needed)

You remind them of the earlier solution.

They fire you for insubordination and insolence and bring in someone that will just do the damned job.

You go find another place to work where you hope you can get away with being too smart for your own good.

 

That's the real life scenario.

Back on topic, If I buy a product that has bundle-ware, I reject the bundle, email the vendor with my dissatisfaction and depending on the response (or maybe not even then) start looking for alternatives. For free software that is bundled . . I don't bother emailing.

I appreciate that you at least tell them that you are dissatisfied with the bundling on what you bought, but personally I wish more people would complain even about the free stuff.  No complaints = more of the same as the people that are pushing the bundles assume we like the bundles and are happy with status quo.  More complaints = change the world and improve things so that we don't have to live with crappy results.

Typical scenario...
Managment gives IT the authority to SET IT policy (sometimes), but NEVER gives authority to enforce it. The policies typically have no teeth, thus they are ignored by most. Yes, it is frustrating and if that were all the day consisted of then I would have walked away from it years ago. You just seem to have those "special" days where this type of thing is repeatedly dished out to you.




Good comparison Jafo. Just imagine taking your car in for new tires and the tire manufacturer has a policy that it MUST install windshield wipers that have been coated with vaseline... without asking you first. ...




Till the problem occurs on the new system, then in most cases your butt is the one in trouble for suggesting that the company spend unwarranted funds.


To a degree, you do have to learn them . This is necessary to aid in the process of preventing them from re-occurring.  
You got that right about improvements to their business though. God forbid that someone "beneath" them would have a good idea. We're just "computer geeks" and surely know nothing about the business. (despite the fact that our core services depend upon us knowing the business operational structure and it's expected goals. )

Fairplay Phoon,you IT guys must have the patience of saints.  I reckon I would last about 15 minutes.  

most of us drink like fish...

'cept when we're on call (almost universal in IT field to spend some time on call; personally I put in 2 weeks out of every 4).

hehe you should move to England,we are really good at this.    

Well, I've watched a truckload of Monty Python videos/movies, and I can recite much of the Young Ones by rote. In addition, I've seen Dr. Who and Mr. Bean, so I should fit into the culture MAHHHVELOUSLY!

With credentials like that you would be given a passport on arrival.  

What, exactly, am I supposed to do now that I only have one inch left of browser due to all the explorer toolbars? How do I remove them, anyway? I don't know how they got there in the first place.

Never mind AOL's spyware detector, which always needs to be updated, but which I cannot remove for some reason...

Hop on a network printer, print out some dandy "uncheck toolbar addons" stickers and put em on their monitor, I dunno, just seems to me that even though I agree that its the software company's initial fault that saying people are untrainable regarding a simple unchecking of a box is a little exaggerated. I assume it is not monkey's working there?      

When we're talking about people who cannot check to verify that the local computer, not the domain, is showing in their logon screen, I would be hard pressed to say the technical know-how is that much more advanced.

I haven't personally tried this, but it's supposed to uninstall most toolbars:
WWW Link



Well, at least I have that part down.

AND you have the red Swingline stapler avatar! You are a TRUE geek and I'm humbled to be in your presence!