Stop me if you've heard this one: ads in a paid-for product

[Richard_Lee1]

I know it's an old one, but I'm a new Parallels user. Article from 2012 here refers: http://macwhiz.com/blog/2012/07/26/case-study-in-cluelessness-parallels/. I can't believe parallels are still doing this.

Paid my money for Parallels. Spent a lot of time setting up my shiny new Mac with the Windows and Linux setup I need. All very sweet.

Then I saw a Kaspersky ad on startup, clicked to not show me again.

Kaspersky installer link is now in main menu called something like "virus-check with Kaspersky". Clicked to see what it would do, so then I have a nagging Kaspersky on my Mac. Oh, Kaspersky doesn't uninstall just by dragging the app to trash. Sweet.

So this morning, despite having asked not to be shown ads again - Acronis ad pops up, and there is a link in the main menu to "Back up with Acronis".

In the Windows world there are a bunch of download sites where the installer for the app you want is bundled with others, and generally you can deselect them on install and never get bothered. My favourite FTP app recently started bundling cr@p that couldn't be deselected, so now I use another FTP client. Adobe. Oh man, Adobe how I hate them. They bundle AV installs into *updates*, which in some circumstances aren't even visible. These features make users really really angry with vendors *and* the 3rd party vendors, almost certainly generate very few sales.

So basically, and probably just like every other right-thinking customer on the planet: I DO NOT WANT ADS IN A PAID PRODUCT

 

[David_T]

Just curious, where did you see the kaspersky option? I've got parallel 10 now, and it's running a win xp I installed under parallels 7. There's no kaspersky option anywhere after install.

I think there was a tick box option on install, but I never go for any of the extras.

 

[Richard_Lee1]

Hi David,
it was a modal dialog on startup of Parallels. Subsequently I noticed a main menu "Parallels Desktop" option.
I've now got an Acronis link - see the attached screenshot Oh, and the antivirus on is still there too!

Rich
[Edit for surprise!]

 

[David_T]

You're right, that's damn sneaky and quite immoral in my view. I think I'm regretting staying with parallels for v10.

 

[Richard_Lee1]

Well, it's a decent product - done a poor PR/Marketing blow by suits no doubt. It should be good through Yosemite, so we won't need to spend more money until late 2015 now, by which time the memory will have faded, I'll have a task to get done and I'll find that an upgrade is just one yak-shaving step to get past so I can do my job.

I'm not expecting much mind you - my comment on their facebook page got deleted

Rich

 

[After Hours]

Well, it's a decent product - done a poor PR/Marketing blow by suits no doubt. It should be good through Yosemite, so we won't need to spend more money until late 2015 now, by which time the memory will have faded, I'll have a task to get done and I'll find that an upgrade is just one yak-shaving step to get past so I can do my job.

I'm not expecting much mind you - my comment on their facebook page got deleted

Rich

The feature for Kaspersky has been around for a few versions now. While I hear you about what appears to be in-app marketing, it is VERY selective in my view here. Parallels marketed Kaspersky (one of the better AV toolsets, as things are) because a Windows VM is still susceptible to all the crap that is out there for unsuspecting Windows users: drive-by infections, crypto trojans, etc.) If you don't use your Windows VM with any internet tools, and all of your macro-containing files from Microsoft or Adobe PDFs and alike are clean, and your multimedia is sanitized, then the marketing is a waste and an annoyance. If, on the other hand, you use your VM as most users do, you are at some degree of risk. You had an option to not install the Kaspersky. If you did so, you can uninstall it the same way we all always do in a Windows world: either through the control panel in Windows for application management, or if that fails, from a clean installer/uninstaller from the AV vendor.

As for backups of your windows data -- again, this is simply due diligence for a normal Windows user. Most neglect to back up their data until their first failure bites them hard. I personally recommend Acronis to my Windows customers, since they don't have TimeMachine's thoroughness even in Windows 7 or 8. For us with VMs, I'm willing to bet there are plenty here that don't use TimeMachine on their Macs. They should, but for a variety of excuses, they won't. That's OK. I make a lot of money from data recovery. Sure, one can use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to image a drive, too. That'd be smart. But most folks don't. That annoying Acronis ad would be as worthless to the 'I'm better than backing up' crowd as it is to those of us who actually make backups for our pvm files, so maybe it is a waste. That doesn't mean it is included in the Parallels product to be harmful or a bad idea. It isn't. Unless those 'ads' don't obey your opt-out request during setup or updates.

 

[Richard_Lee1]

Hi After Hours, thanks for your reply. I kinda have to disagree, a little, with your points though

From a straight-up logical point of view: The argument that AV and backups are a good idea (which they absolutely are) is not sufficient reason for Parallels to push them within their app.

Kaspersky
Kaspersky is a paid-for solution when there are plenty decent free and cheaper options available. I'm not convinced it's one of the better ones. The install from within Parallels doesn't let you know it's paid-for until it starts nagging. Uninstalling Kaspersky isn't straightforward - it's not just a drag-to-trash, but requires finding and downloading an uninstaller. Even then it leaves plugins in browsers, and the Firefox one can't be directly uninstalled, only disabled, without a fair bit of messing about. It's nasty.

Windows vulnerabilities
There's a lot of FUD around regarding Windows security IMO. Windows XP, pre-SP1, was a vulnerable mess. That was around 2001. Given it has the lion's share of the market it's unsurprising there's more attacks against it than other platforms. Everything has vulnerabilities and can be hacked, and recent vulnerabilities in SSH and bash shell are platform-agnostic for the most part.

Using a VM like any other Windows install is fine. Windows Firewall and a free AV behind an ISP and router firewall gives decent protection. Weaponised PDFs and so on are a risk but are neither (IMO) inherent Windows weaknesses nor delivered via Windows weaknesses - the usual vector is social, such as spear-fishing via email, and the problem is between the chair and the keyboard so that continuous education of is important in and outside the workplace.

I think you have an excellent point about drive-by infections - e.g. compromised ad-links in a legit site. These have been a real growth vector for some time and have compromised Macs as well as PCs. Keeping patched, uninstalling Java (I wish I could), running AV, not running as admin user... all help.

Thinking about Mac users running a VM because they need Windows I'm wondering if they would be more vulnerable (because they have been lulled by the lack of threats against Mac OS) or less vulnerable (because they've been told that Windows has poor security so wil be extra-vigilant). But other than Mac users who reluctantly need Windows for a course perhaps, I would expect most VM users to be fairly sophisticated - your Gran isn't going to need it, for example.

I think the practice of not clicking email attachments when you don't know where they are from should be universal, and running an exe that offers you naked Jennifer Lawrence pics... well you deserve what you get

Backups
Backups are a fine idea irrespective of the platform, but again, why push a solution on me? Surely Time Machine will backup my VMs as well as my Mac OS content, effectively for free, and a native Mac user will likely choose Time Machine by default. I agree Acronis is a good product, and very useful for migrating disks as well as incremental backup/restore, but it's absolutely not necessary in a VM on a Mac.

Anyhoo, I'm all for education, and thanks for the tips. But I don't agree that it follows that it's therefore OK to push specific protection products with Parallels..