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I hate Telstra software

· 2 min read

Completely typical! I've just installed Telstra's BigPond Wireless Broadband client (unavoidable I'm afraid), and the installer has violated my PC in two ways (so far):

  1. the installer changed my browser's home page to some useless BigPond page; and
  2. the installer changed my browers's title from "Internet Explorer" to "Telstra BigPond Home Intenet Explorer"... that's right, viewing this site, my browser's window title actually reads "PC Thoughts - Telstra BigPond Home Internet Explorer"... arghh!!

Now I can understand that the weasels, oops, I mean "managers" at Telstra want to maximise Telstra's branding, but at the very least they should have provided an opt-out checkbox during the install process!! Obviously the first violation is easy to fix (though no less offensive), but now I'm going to have to search the registry / internet to fix the second one! :(

I do not want my PC to be branded "Telstra BigPond" in any way! Especially considering that BigPond is, by far, the least of three ISPs that I use. And while I'm on that... what if my homepage had been set to Optus, or some other ISP? Surely then, I, or someone else, could claim that Telstra's installer is abusing its position in an anti-competitive manner?

In case you haven't noticed yet, this has really pi$$ed me off!! And the worst thing is this: I knew the stupid installer would do such things before I even inserted the CD! :(

There's really only one solution - change ISPs... but what's this you're saying about a monopoly? :(

Update

See the follow-up Internet Explorer's window title post.