swies

We should play this up more on our site, but Ninite (I'm a co-founder and we're YC W08) does this stuff right.

All our .exes are signed, app config information comes over https, and downloads are all checked for hashes that match our testing before being automated. We're not just naively adding silent switches either, we'll automate clicks to get through less well-behaved installers when needed.

Why can you trust Ninite? Money. Thousands of businesses pay us for Ninite Pro and the free version is our marketing department. We're extremely careful to make sure our updates come out on time and junk free.

That's so nice to hear. Thank you!

I'd love to make a Mac version someday, but the problems are so much worse on Windows so we're focusing there.

PortableApps is great!

Ninite Co-Founder here.

Our pro-version SAAS business model works great.

Plus we started Ninite because junkware enraged us so much. It's just punching down at non-technical users. I'd kill the company before doing that.

Anyway, we'll be around and junkware free until the world moves to platforms where everything's signed and sandboxed.

That's right, we did no redistribution or modification of their software. Ninite just automates things you would do.

But, publishers can license their software under whatever terms they want. They could forbid this sort of automation in the license, or even forbid Ninite specifically by name. As far as we can tell there's no right to automate your own machine that prohibitions like that would be violating.

I think the only defense here is public backlash (thanks everyone!) and/or boycott.

Sorry for the confusion. That copy is about things like Filehippo Updater, not built-in updaters. The aggregation and automation arguments still apply, but it's not intended as a jab at them.

I'm still confused at how making money destroys our credibility. It's a good thing for the people you trust with software updates to be profitable. Pro users paying us for extra features like remote mode lets us offer Ninite free for everyone else.

We don't even run ads on the free site because Pro users pay the bills and we love that we can save people from wasting time clicking Next Next Next.

We're good guys, it's OK. :)

Seriously though, we'd lose all our Ninite Pro customers if we pulled any crap with our installations. Since the free version is our marketing department we'd be idiots to mess that up too.

Glad to hear you like it. We think about configuration stuff like this from time to time, but I'm pretty sure getting all the details right would take years. So we haven't made the leap yet.

We don't modify the apps. We run the installers in a hidden window and simulate the clicks to install them without toolbars.

Thanks for using Ninite!

Apps are downloaded from the publishers. We validate files with SHA-1 hashes and digital signatures (where available) before using them.

I needed to post this here because we solve the problem in the article.

The problem is deceptive software. That we're funded by YC (or that InstallMonetizer is) is a red herring. But it sure does get some clicks!

On a perfect version of HN the top comments would be about solving the problems in posts, not elaborating on them.

Not to dump on HN though. This is a bug in human nature.

Glad to hear you like Ninite and that we saved you time, thanks for using it!