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Garmin Express download WARNING!!

Former Member over 9 years ago

I just downloaded Garmin Express on my new (6 months old) laptop (Win 8.1, 64 bit) to update my nuvi 2797. It took some doing. Garmin does not like Chrome Canary, or even Chrome (go to IE). After getting all kinds of extraneous error messages or failures, I finally got it to download. There were SEVERAL pages of legalese and AGREEMENTs to approve, which I did, and finally got it installed and up. Then I discovered that Garmin had added/included several unwanted programs in the download. CHROMIUM browser with a homescreen toolbar, plus several ads for AV software and the like.

I've been a longtime Garmin fan, have purchased maybe a dozen over the years, from the first nuvi 200 thru the current fav. I drive/travel the southeast and use Garmin daily. I have advised numerous friends, relatives, colleagues to buy Garmin. The few times I've needed Customer Service, I have been impressed. But this issue of adding, really just sneaking in unwanted software and ads into a download is VERY OFFENSIVE, an annoyance, and a betrayal of trust.

If you are OK with this, it's usually because you just don't know any better, have not been around long enough to experience some of the problems for your computer this stuff can cause. The reason Garmin does it is because Garmin get PAID for doing it by these companies.

VERY POOR FORM, Garmin. If not a breach of ethics, a very bad breach of etiquette.

LowndesW

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Going Forward

LowndesW,

Seeing that you already made screenshots (which I also do when installing new software), I will offer some suggestions that might help you and others who want to keep their computers clean.

Whenever I do an "installation" of any software, I run two "portable" "freeware" applications - Revo Uninstaller and CCleaner. Since these two applications are "portable", they do not make any entries or changes to the Registry (indeed, I have both of them -along with many more programs - on a SD card which I carry with me in my pocket so that I can help others who are having problems with their computers). They both will provide for me a list of all of the software that has been "installed" on my computer.

Just before I "install" any software, I run them both and determine what software is currently on my computer in order of installation from latest to earliest. I sometime find that Microsoft has updated something I was not aware of but really I am looking for applications I did not authorize (note" I started doing this back when my grandsons would use my computers while visiting me and they would get me lots of "junk"). After I install new software, I immediately run both Revo and CCleaner to check that the only new application that appears is the one I intended to install (and I will have to admit that I sometimes clicked through the "OK"s too fast and let an unwanted application get through - but I then immediately uninstalled it).

Then I run another "portable" "freeware" package called Autoruns - which lets me see whether the software I just installed has inserted "startup" entries that I do not want. Express is getting better at this, but early on it wanted to keep itself running all the time.

Once again, if you downloaded Express from Garmin, I am certain that it was not responsible for any unwanted programs.

0 bbrannon over 9 years ago

I scrolled through the replies rather quickly. I did not see anyone mention that there is a very good chance that you did not download Express directly from Garmin but more likely from cnet or one of a few dozen other sources that offer downloads of commonly used software. They usually include some sort of "installer" which is where all the unwanted stuff comes from. If you can't download it directly from the author then don't touch it.

Unfortunately a search for the software you are looking for does not often list the real author first.