Author Topic: Prompt Uninstaller; yet another rip-off (Read 39,917 times)

Curt · « **on:** January 21, 2008, 06:17 PM »

Edited for new titel instead of the original "Prompt Uninstaller is extremely fast"
as it turns out that Prompt Installer not was written by SpeedApps, but is a rip-off
------------------------------------------------------------------- original post:

Everyday I get an email from Freeware World Team telling about new or updated freeware, and today SpeedApps Prompt Uninstaller was listed, so I gave this one a try.

You know what? The word "speed" in the company's name is to be taken literally! VERY literally!! The first 'coldstart' of the program took half a second - and you know what even more what? that was half a second INCLUDING the scanning and listing of 385 programs!!!

This program cannot replace REVO or AddRemove Pro if you are having any kind of problems, Prompt Uninstaller is of course a very simple program / displaying very few informations to be that lightening fast, but if you (like me) are (adding or) removing programs several times a day, then this little uninstaller will save you eons of time! It is so unbelievable FAST!!!!

Click thumb to read highlighted text: "385 items loaded in 0.141 seconds" - from my XP.

They offer a lot more:

Quote from: SpeedApps

Backup SafeKeeper * USB PC Lock Pro * Cyber Bandwidth Monitor * Desktop Activity Recorder * Prompt FTP Client * Remote Manager * Desktop Screenshot Whiz * Firewall Tuneup * Files Crawler * Prompt Startup Manager * RSS Balloon Reader * Memory Monitor * Network Digger * Gmail Notifier * Free Registry Cleaner * Desktop Switcher * File Guardian * MyTorrent Downloader * Password Manager Complete * Windows Total Control * Swift Disk Defrag * WinIcon Customizer * Prompt Uninstaller * Bulk Email Sender * Prompt Drivers Backup * Directories Sweeper * OnePass * System Tuneup * Process Manager

Edit: Link removed

VSiAQ · « **Reply #1 on:** January 21, 2008, 06:48 PM »

Amazing! I haven't come across such a fast uninstaller like this

It loads my list of 198 programs in less than 1 second...

Armando · « **Reply #2 on:** January 21, 2008, 07:21 PM »

Thanks for the info Curt. BTW, farr's "uninstall plugin" is probably pretty close in terms of speed. + very easy to search your list...

Curt · « **Reply #3 on:** January 21, 2008, 08:37 PM »

Quote from: Armando on January 21, 2008, 07:21 PM

.. farr's "uninstall plugin" is probably pretty close in terms of speed. + very easy to search your list...

I decided to search for e-sword, and typed "e",
but before my finger could hit "-"
I was already given 331 programs containing "e":

mwb1100 · « **Reply #4 on:** January 21, 2008, 10:16 PM »

I've been using Safarp (http://wistinga.online.fr/safarp) - a GPL Add/Remove Programs bit of code:

They look remarkably similar.

Curt · « **Reply #5 on:** January 21, 2008, 10:59 PM »

I followed your link, mwb1100, and would think it likely that Prompt is based on the Safarp source code which was abandoned 2½ years ago. Prompt is however showing much less informations than Safarp did according to this old screenshot from the homepage:

[attachthumb=#]

But a rip-off it may be.

PhilB66 · « **Reply #6 on:** January 21, 2008, 11:28 PM »

SpeedApps Website looked dodgy to me - I mean, no contact us details, no info about the company, no license information etc., so I quicly did a whois search and found out it's registered to Nir Halowani. He is linked to a couple of GPL violations, InfraRecorder being the most recent one. appZilla is also associated with him.

Stay away!

Curt · « **Reply #7 on:** January 21, 2008, 11:47 PM »

I have reported the problem to FWT.

f0dder · « **Reply #8 on:** January 22, 2008, 12:19 AM »

Darn, those evil GPL violators

I wish XP-and-later built-in add/remove programs didn't try to be so smart... they do all sorts of scanning, which is why it's slow. A couple of links to The Old New Thing^TM:

How does Add/Remove Programs get the size and other information?
Why did the Add or Remove Programs control panel try to guess all that information?

mwb1100 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 22, 2008, 12:33 AM »

Quote from: f0dder on January 22, 2008, 12:19 AM

they do all sorts of scanning, which is why it's slow.

And the worst thing about it is (well, the slowness is really the worst thing...) that the information it presents as a result of that scanning is so often incorrect that it's basically useless. Not to mention that 99% of the time I know exactly what I want to uninstall so I don't care about the other information anyway. If Add/Remove Programs wants to present that info, it should do it in a background thread (or on demand).

Curt · « **Reply #10 on:** January 22, 2008, 08:34 AM »

It would take so little for Mr. Halowani be make this legal - so little that I don't understand why he will dare the risk and try to make me think that he is the real author, when in fact he is a thief and the item he has stolen is a free and gratis program! All he would have to do is to supply the source code, because Safarp is GNU licensed. Isn't that so?

Quote from: Safarp

This program (Safarp) is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

CGA · « **Reply #11 on:** January 22, 2008, 09:41 AM »

Zsoft uninstaller is also a pretty fast.

Curt · « **Reply #12 on:** January 22, 2008, 10:19 AM »

Quote from: CGA on January 22, 2008, 09:41 AM

Zsoft uninstaller is also a pretty fast.

- link corrected

http://www.zsoft.dk/index.php?goto=software_details&prog_id=4 is the homepage

Lashiec · « **Reply #13 on:** January 22, 2008, 02:45 PM »

Oh, Nir Halowani, that name brings back some memories from a thread in Hydrogenaudio.

This guy, just like the one of Ultra Pad, seems to have no sense of shame at all, repeatedly stealing other people code, passing it as his and, at the same time, signing with the same name everywhere, who may even be the real one.

lanux128 · « **Reply #14 on:** January 22, 2008, 02:59 PM »

given the condition of the program's status and past records of the "author", shouldn't we tone down on superlative that appears on the topic's title? maybe in the long run, we should also take a vote on software that are of this nature. just my 2¢..

Lashiec · « **Reply #15 on:** January 22, 2008, 03:00 PM »

I vote for "Safarp is extremely fast" ;)

lanux128 · « **Reply #16 on:** January 22, 2008, 03:06 PM »

Quote from: Armando on January 21, 2008, 07:21 PM

...BTW, farr's "uninstall plugin" is probably pretty close in terms of speed. + very easy to search your list...

i'd second Armando's quote..

CGA · « **Reply #17 on:** January 23, 2008, 12:33 AM »

Quote from: Curt on January 22, 2008, 10:19 AM

Quote from: CGA on January 22, 2008, 09:41 AM
Zsoft uninstaller is also a pretty fast.
- link corrected

http://www.zsoft.dk/index.php?goto=software_details&prog_id=4 is the homepage

Thanks Curt, my bad

lanux128 · « **Reply #18 on:** January 23, 2008, 06:33 AM »

Quote from: Curt on January 21, 2008, 06:17 PM

Edited for new titel instead of the original "Prompt Uninstaller is extremely fast"
as it turns out that Prompt Installer not was written by SpeedApps, but is a rip-off

good move, Curt!

PhilB66 · « **Reply #19 on:** January 23, 2008, 12:56 PM »

Quote from: Curt on January 21, 2008, 11:47 PM

I have reported the problem to FWT.

Did you hear back from FWT?

Curt · « **Reply #20 on:** January 23, 2008, 01:37 PM »

Quote from: PhilB66 on January 23, 2008, 12:56 PM

Quote from: Curt on January 21, 2008, 11:47 PM
I have reported the problem to FWT.
Did you hear back from FWT?

This is the third or fourth time I have emailed FWT about irregularities and I have always received a proper response. This time Jørgen thanked me and said that he would look into this, and I expect he will because he has done so the other times, but I do not expect to be informed about the final outcome.

PhilB66 · « **Reply #21 on:** January 23, 2008, 01:59 PM »

Well it's a shame it was listed in the first place.

Cyber Bandwidth Monitor is another rip-off. FreeMeter Bandwidth Monitor For Windows looks like the original project.

nosh · « **Reply #22 on:** January 23, 2008, 03:00 PM »

I swapped Safarp for MyUninstaller around a year back because of the additional features it provides.

Tried Prompt Uninstaller, right out of the box it tries to connect to app-zilla.com/...

Denied the connection, Googled app-zilla.com & got this (it links to a feed so a pic is more descriptive.)

[attachimg=#]

It's nothing concrete, still, a case for outbound monitoring perhaps?

PS: Holy Cow! Was just looking through the DC smileys for the Yahoochat question mark dude and saw these! Reserved for special occasions only I'm guessing

Curt · « **Reply #23 on:** January 23, 2008, 03:07 PM »

Quote from: PhilB66 on January 23, 2008, 01:59 PM

Well it's a shame it was listed in the first place. Cyber Bandwidth Monitor is another rip-off. FreeMeter Bandwidth Monitor For Windows looks like the original project.

You cannot expect this kind of sites to investigate every program before linking, it would take far too much time - they are offering several thousand links. I think it is fair for FWT to supply a link and ask their users to report if there are any kind of problems.

Cyber Bandwith Monitor is just another SpeedApps progam, and all their programs are rip-offs.

[attachthumb=#]

I use NetMeter from http://www.metal-machine.de/readerror/ ;