Like others in this list, I was very annoyed when my work computer began displaying the VPM 'update' message. While I eventually found it easy to remove, I was annoyed/concerned enough to be curious, which eventually led me HERE (and there).
After a liitle bit of research, VMP appears to be a legitimate program, although I am concerned that ANY program I am unfamiliar with could be installed without my knowledge.
I have seen other programs, like RealPlayer, reset the RealSched program to automatically load at startup every time they get used. And this also annoys me. Having experienced many performance and lockup problems in the past, I am very anal about what gets loaded at startup.
But perhaps programs like VMP and RealSched will become more commonplace as time goes on, and our systems get faster, and we can stop being so paranoid about this. I can remember a time when I would download dozens of plugins - until I grew paranoid and then wouldn't allow any of them to be installed. When was the last time you allowed a website to download and install that new activex-thingy? I'm leary about letting Microsoft's website do that.
So how does a new software startup convince people to download and install their great new movie-viewer (or whatever), since most people today won't allow such a thing? After all, we already have RealPlayer, MediaPlayer, Flash, QuickTime, etc. How can even experienced (much less novice) users keep track of it all?
So how do they do it? They make agreements with big companies who don't want to license older (possibly more expensive or crippled because they are established) technologies to deliver the user experience, and, as part of the agreement, here's how we can sneek it in there (fill the rest in because I don't know how they did it), etc.
So, I understand the motives (I think). And I understand from my own past behaviour that I would be slow to allowing yet another 3rd party browser add-in to be downloaded and installed, just to view some whiz-bang marketing demo.
The thing that most concerns me is that, even if a legitimate company has a legitimate reason to install a VMP (or whatever), it opens the door to allowing MY OWN PC to run 3rd party programs at startup that I did not agree to or even have a chance to say NO to. This is simply NOT OK.
If there is no practical way to make STEALTHWARE installation illegal, the marketplace of rational and considerate ideas should complain to as many public forums as possible: Do NOT install a program to run at startup without asking for and receiving my permission in an easy to see, understand, and use way.
