Comments on: Dell and Google pull Bad Deal

By: David Szpunar

David Szpunar — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:25:55 +0000

I don’t know how to check, but I seem to recall when I initially read about it that someone said the Add/Remove Programs removal worked. Can’t confirm, though.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 08:21:15 +0000

I used Add/Remove Programs to remove them, but the process was so quick (less than 1/2 sec) that I’m suspicious that it removed them at all – maybe just removed them from the uninstall list!? Anyone know how to check for complete removal?

By: David Szpunar

David Szpunar — Sat, 26 May 2007 19:55:53 +0000

OpenDNS says they're "Browser Address Error Redirector" and/or "GoogleAFE" which are both not something I would think the average user would know to look for or uninstall, if they even figured out what the problem was. I'll agree that if un-installing those from Add/Remove Programs is all that is required, it's not "more difficult" to remove necessarily. But it's still not something the average user would know to do, and it appears to cause some strange problems right out of the box for some. I don't like bundling but I understand why it's done. But I think this goes too far, speaking even just as a tech guy that (even random) people ask "why doesn't my computer work, I just bought it?" sometimes. Can I bill Dell and/or Google for my time if I end up troubleshooting this junk? Makes me want to...

By: Trace Pupke

Trace Pupke — Sat, 26 May 2007 19:46:24 +0000

Actually, they aren’t hard to remove. There are two uninstalls in the Add/Remove Programs control panel that will remove these “features”. I don’t remember the names exactly, “URL Assist” & “Search Assist”, I think.
We remove them from our computers.