Author Topic: Never again will I purchase that shampoo! (or will I?) (Read 21306 times)

Curt · « **on:** December 17, 2008, 05:44 PM »

I am not too sure when I installed my first version of Ashampoo WinOptimizer, but I made the first upgrade to version 4 19-September-2007 when it maybe was no longer all new, I don't remember exactly. But I do remember that I upgraded to a brand new version 5, 02-April-2008. Today's updated version is 5.10, but now, December 2008, precisely eight month later, they have launched version 6! Really!! I am outraged (I must clarify that a license is "major version limited"). This is simply the same as to take a pi** on their customers!!! (You can, though, keep using version 4 or version 5 as you please).

The "funny" part is that I never use the program. I just purchase any new version in order to have it as updated and capable as possible! Yeah, I know - the fool is me, isn't it. I hate this company. But somehow I expect I soon will be the owner of WinOptimizer 6, and then forget about it until version 7 calls, by the end of next summer!

Do you have some sort of comparable disease?

edbro · « **Reply #1 on:** December 17, 2008, 05:51 PM »

Usually when a company produces upgrades that often they are not adding that much into the versions. I doubt if there is a world of difference between ver 5 and ver 6. Just say no!

I am not a fan of Ashampoo because of their marketing strategy. Having said that, I do use Ashampoo Burning Studio 8 as my only burning program. Better than the Nero that it replaced.

Curt · « **Reply #2 on:** December 17, 2008, 06:15 PM »

Usually when a company produces upgrades that often they are not adding that much into the versions. I doubt if there is a world of difference between ver 5 and ver 6. Just say no!
-edbro (December 17, 2008, 05:51 PM)

No!

Well, it actually is becoming a quite diverged but still also a quite capable program. I have nothing really bad to say about their programs. They are not all that great, but they are somehow still quite good at the same time. Simple high tech for the common man, if ever there was such? But I certainly agree with you, on their marketing strategy!

gexecuter · « **Reply #3 on:** December 17, 2008, 07:05 PM »

Why do you buy stuff that you don't use? that's just dumb.

*looks at the GTA trilogy pack for PS2 that he bought without having a PS2*

Darwin · « **Reply #4 on:** December 17, 2008, 07:19 PM »

They are not all that great, but they are somehow still quite good at the same time.
-Curt (December 17, 2008, 06:15 PM)

Ah, the dying art of damning with faint praise! Well done, Curt! This morsel, and the rest of your post sum up my feelings about Ashampoo EXACTLY

I still use Ashampoo Burner and like it a lot. I also use the Uninstaller Suite - have both 2 Platinum and 3 installed. I upgraded to 3 for $9.95 but consider it a waste of money... I also have WinOptimizer 5 installed but, like you, rarely, if ever, use it. I have nothing particularly damning to say about it other than that I don't really trust the tweaks it offers to make on my Vista system...

Curt · « **Reply #5 on:** December 17, 2008, 11:10 PM »

... but consider it a waste of money... I also have WinOptimizer 5 installed but, like you, rarely, if ever, use it. I have nothing particularly damning to say about it other than that I don't really trust the tweaks it offers to make on my Vista system...
-Darwin (December 17, 2008, 07:19 PM)

Yes, they were right not to call the new Uninstaller for Platinum, so now you know what their next program will be: Uninstaller 3 Platinum...
What goes for WinOptimizer version 6: Have you been offered an upgrade? Because I haven't - and it puzzles me. So much in fact that I wrote the company and asked why! Of course not because I want to upgrade (? ha!) but because I was miffed. Having Yiggles-Status: GOLD (like you, or have you already joined the next upper club?) I would expect to be offered an upgrade even before the official launching.

Another thing is, that I don't understand how you can be so patient as to actually USE their Uninstaller. All that scanning got on my nerves, and I lost my temper and removed it.

---

I have replaced their Office packet with the original from SoftMakers.

Darwin · « **Reply #6 on:** December 18, 2008, 12:05 AM »

Heh, heh - I only use Ashampoo Uninstaller to scan my registry before and after installing Giveawayoftheday software...

No offer of an upgrade for me (still a "golden" boy, like you). First I'd heard of version 6 was reading this thread! I am annoyed, too, as I only upgraded to 5 about two months ago

Still, I never really use it... so don't care. I just have to be sure not to upgrade to 6

iphigenie · « **Reply #7 on:** December 18, 2008, 04:41 AM »

just wait a month or two and you'll get the email offering you to upgrade at 9.99

I haven't upgraded anything from ashampoo for a while, they haven't added features that I needed (things I already have elsewhere, mostly), but eventually i might get a 7.99 or 9.99 offer and go for it.

The exception is actually the Burning Studio - I have updated that one. It is a nice slick and simple/clear tool to use

Darwin · « **Reply #8 on:** December 18, 2008, 07:10 AM »

Exactly what I do, iphigenie - the Yiggles are pointless because if you hold out long enough you'll be offered the upgrade for the cost of a move ticket.

What's annoying me about Ashampoo is the bloat that is creeping into a lot of their applications and the fact that there is so much duplication of features across their product line.

Again, like you, the exeption for me is the Burning Studio.

iphigenie · « **Reply #9 on:** December 18, 2008, 02:11 PM »

I'm sitting on a mountain of yiggles over the years - they are annoying because:
- the yiggle cost is based on the full price, whether you have the app or not
- you can only use it once per app, so if you need 2 licenses you have to buy one (and you have to buy it full price, in theory, because you no longer have the 40% or 60% rebate you had while you had less yiggles)

What I would like to use yiggles for is buy licenses to give people - some of the software is nice enough that I would pick it for someone who wants that!

For example the image manager is no ACDSee but it is pretty nice and easier to use for a novice

Curt · « **Reply #10 on:** December 18, 2008, 05:00 PM »

For example the image manager is no ACDSee but it is pretty nice and easier to use for a novice
-iphigenie (December 18, 2008, 02:11 PM)

Yes, Photo Commander 7 really is nice and easy, and its quality in general is fine. However: Some months ago I was on a major hunt for a program to use to add frames to some images, and on this hunt I also came across my own Photo Commanders, version 6 and version 7. Because I had both, I know for a fact that they have not added a single frame or framing feature, when they upgraded version 6 to 7. But still this particular part of the otherwise nice and capable program, is a total embarrassment to the company! How on earth did the programmer get the bizarre idea that it is the photo that must fit the frame and not the frame that should fit the photo??!!! The framing part of Ashampoo Photo Commander is not even a bad joke, it is merely an insult to the user!

Edited:
I just realize WHY they temporally have abandoned this part of their program:
They are trying to give me a reason to upgrade to version 8 with many useful frames!!!

J-Mac · « **Reply #11 on:** December 18, 2008, 11:48 PM »

Hehehe!

I love it! All of you, shaking your collective heads and tsk, tsk-ing the purchase of almost completely unused software applications -- and then saying that you will probably upgrade again anyway.

Err.. Makes me feel a little less stupid for continually upgrading two apps in particular that I know I don’t need and hardly ever even open.

But I've owned them since they were initially released and somehow MUST upgrade them!

Weird creatures we are...

Jim

BTW, the two are AW Icons by Lokas Software and Agent Forte - the Premium version AND their monthly newsgroup subscription. (Just got a notice about V.5 released and wouldn’t I like to upgrade???)

Oops - of course there is also AllWebMenus Pro - and I stopped designing web sites two years ago. Aw man...

app103 · « **Reply #12 on:** December 19, 2008, 12:47 AM »

The closest thing that afflicts me that even compares to this is my obsession with freebies.

I have a gazillion free subscriptions to magazines I will never read, and every time they offer me another 2 years worth for free, I jump on it.

I keep telling myself that they will be good fodder for my daughter's "big art project" made from words & phrases chopped from magazines.

The only problem with that, is she is getting way behind on the chopping and has a stack over 6' tall (if combined) of freebie magazines to go through. And she won't let me toss them to make room for the new ones that are arriving almost daily. (there might be some really good phrases in the ones I toss out and she would miss out on them)

It is only within the past 6 months that I have been making an active effort to resist renewing them, only to find out that my daughter has discovered where to subscribe to free useless magazines, herself. (oh noes!)

Curt · « **Reply #13 on:** December 24, 2008, 05:22 AM »

just wait a month or two and you'll get the email offering you to upgrade at 9.99
-iphigenie (December 18, 2008, 04:41 AM)

It didn't even take that long. I am now the not-so-proud owner of 5.185 yiggles and WinOptimizer version 6.0. This time I actually ran the program, before forgetting about it! I don't see any difference in my computer's behaviour before vs after, but I haven't noticed any flaws either. One of the several features that I disabled, before running the optimizer, was the "remove those 1.2 GIGAbytes files you have which you don't need". No informations was given on which files were included. Am I really expected to delete 2.500 files without knowing anything about their identity, other than WinOptimizer thinks I don't need them?? This is not the way to do this, Ashampoo!!! Apart from this major lack, the program is nice & capable, as expected. And easy to use, also as expected.

The upgrade price is below $10, as expected by iphigenie. Female intuition?

Edited:
I didn't dare to run the registry cleaner.

Curt · « **Reply #14 on:** March 29, 2011, 06:50 AM »

no, I am not goin' to take this offer:

Why I don't take the offer?

Of course because I already have a key for this version!

iphigenie · « **Reply #15 on:** March 30, 2011, 05:52 AM »

lol, but imagine, you could have, like, 2 keys!!!

Seriously, i havent found much useful in these optimisation programs, but then I havent looked much. I stopped buying them a while back

Once nice thing about ashampoo is that they have a list of their newsletters available on the website, so say you are at a family member's place and determine they need a simple tool for photo scan organisation you can go back and try a $1.99 offer for photo commander whose link/code stillworks (as I did last summer). That is nice and transparent of them.

Curt · « **Reply #16 on:** March 30, 2011, 08:39 AM »

Seriously, i havent found much useful in these optimisation programs,
-iphigenie (March 30, 2011, 05:52 AM)

I have this fixed idea that one day I will get my hands on some fully updated installation CDs for Win2000, XP, and Vista, and then I will let these "optimizers" and "cleaners" do all they can - so when I then reboot, I will have a CD ready to perform the already necessary repair-installations, and voila!: I end up having a CLEAN install, without loosing anything important. ;-)

iphigenie · « **Reply #17 on:** March 31, 2011, 05:27 AM »

I have this fixed idea that one day I will get my hands on some fully updated installation CDs for Win2000, XP, and Vista, and then I will let these "optimizers" and "cleaners" do all they can - so when I then reboot, I will have a CD ready to perform the already necessary repair-installations, and voila!: I end up having a CLEAN install, without loosing anything important. ;-)
-Curt (March 30, 2011, 08:39 AM)

I understand the dream, I still have the acronis image somewhere for my clean-but-with-basic-apps windows XP system. It just was too hard to maintain as the OS and my "essential basics" changed (since it would need a clean reinstall) so I gave up.

Might actually not be out of reach now since XP barely changes, but I only have one machine on XP left. (edit: I lie, my dad had a netbook with XP on it so I now have 2)

Curt · « **Reply #18 on:** March 31, 2011, 08:41 AM »

-on my next pc I hope to have room for several partitions, so I can move the entire Win2k + XP + Vista enchilada, and then fix the problems. Only when it was broken did I discover why it is important to save plenty with space: the Win2k had no free space at all = impossible to fix!

---------
Regarding the thread's subject; this is why version 7 was so cheap:

This time I feel certain I won't take the offer. But time will show!

Darwin · « **Reply #19 on:** March 31, 2011, 08:48 AM »

Ooh... Curt! Think about those Yiggles! Go on, you know you want to...

Seriously, I've been cured (I think) - I've ignored all of Ashampoo's come ons for over a year now. The only Ashampoo product I still have installed is Uninstaller (latest version), but I haven't used it in ages, either... Might just get rid of it.

Of course, I *must* see what they've changed for WinOptimizer 8, software junkie that I am.

Curt · « **Reply #20 on:** March 31, 2011, 09:30 AM »

I didn't even make it to read your post, Darwin, before I made the purchase. Yeah, I know.

The usual procedure is to install it, so I can register it at Ashampoo, and then remove it again, because it will place things in Start.

But of course you were right, Mike. I simply used some Yiggles and had it for "free". But you also know? These Yiggles does not last for ever; actually I am already down to a thousand of the kind! 3D CAD Pro 3, Photo Commander 9, Burning Studio 10, Optimizer 8, Shrink & Burn 3, they all eat Yiggles for breakfast, so to speak... I am saving the remaining 1.090 Yiggles for Burning Studio 11, it should be due any minute now! The one good thing is that once you're a Premium member, you have it all for "free", as long as there are Yiggles to pay with.

cyberdiva · « **Reply #21 on:** March 31, 2011, 12:22 PM »

I guess I'm a little confused about why you would pay money when some of these programs (or one version down) are available from Ashampoo for free. Are there features you can't get in the free version? I've got BurningStudio 2010. I keep getting offers for BS10, but BS2010 meets my needs well. I also get ads for all Ashampoo's other programs (sigh), all of which I delete. So what is the appeal that you (Curt) and others find in the versions that cost $?

Curt · « **Reply #22 on:** March 31, 2011, 02:12 PM »

-being a woman you of all should understand that this is not about making sense but about having the new model or not having it

make peace not war

app103 · « **Reply #23 on:** March 31, 2011, 02:17 PM »

-being a woman you of all should understand that this is not about making sense but about having the new model or not having it
-Curt (March 31, 2011, 02:12 PM)

I don't understand it either. ...and I am prone to packratting behaviors that make little sense to anyone but myself. (but my packratting is limited to hoarding things that are free)

Curt · « **Reply #24 on:** March 31, 2011, 03:32 PM »

I sawed, I harvested. But I was a fool for ever trying to be funny on another person's account. Sorry, cyberdiva!

Of course one might ask why on earth I should bother if any one understand why I prefer the better program A over the cheaper program B.