While the ImgBurn disc burning software might be a tad complex to suit everyone’s needs, it has gained a well earned respect among burning enthusiasts. It’s been quite some time since I’ve used ImgBurn, or even installed it on my system for that matter. Over the years I’ve backed up my DVD’s using a combination of DVDShrink automatically synced with Nero. Nero is long gone of course and toward the latter stages I had been using ImgBurn to complete the process of burning to disc.

More recently, I’ve been utilizing DVD ripper software to rip DVDs to AVI format and then saving the backup files to an external drive. Yesterday, my mate (yes, I do have a mate) came to me and asked if I could backup two DVDs for him. I still have DVDShrink installed but no more Nero or ImgBurn so I needed to download and install the latter afresh… and boy, was I in for a surprise!

ImgBurn still comes in a neat little package, a mere 3.3MB download, but is now bundled with all sorts of extraneous PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs). Not long into the installation process I was presented with the following screen:

**NOTE: Search Protect should definitely be avoided, it changes the home page and search engine locking them into Conduit and is generally regarded as a browser hijacker.

In order to avoid Search Protect you’ll need to select “Custom Installation” and remove the checkmarks from both options. Your installation screen should then resemble the following screenshot, including the changed message at the bottom:

(Why the “Custom Installation” option should be appended with “advanced” is beyond me. The only explanation I can come up with is that the inference might encourage less experienced users to just go ahead with the default installation, including Search Protect)

Okay, so now I’m satisfied that no crapware <um… additional software> is going to be installed I click “Next” only to be presented with more of the same:

I removed the checkmark so as not to accept the terms of TuneUp Utilities EULA and thus decline installation, clicked “Next”, and waited anxiously for the following screen. Thank goodness, from here on the installation proceeded without any further offers or complications.

I realize all this is relatively easily avoided but in the end, bearing in mind that I am an experienced user, it even left me wondering if maybe something hadn’t still manged to sneak through.

I can also understand a developer’s desire to monetize his or her efforts, although, in this case, ImgBurn’s developer(s) appear to have made a poor choice in partners. I just believe it would be much more preferable to use a system of opt-in rather than opt-out, so the installation excluded all this additional paraphernalia by default and users would then need to intervene only if they actually wanted the PUPs. Of course, that could mean eliminating the possibility of inadvertent installations, so definitely not in developers’ or their partners’ best interests.

ImgBurn still did a great job backing up the DVDs but the mix of something like Search Protect with open source software seems entirely incongruous to me and only offers further proof that we should always be cautious and vigilant, and take nothing for granted, even when dealing with the most respected of software.