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ATI catalyst drivers automatically install Folding@ Home?

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DarkSideA8

Gawd
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Apr 13, 2005
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I'm in the middle of updating my computer to my new Win 7 64 build & discovered Folding@Home loaded itself to my system.

The properties tab shows it starts in C:\ATI\Support\9-12_vista64 yada yada yada.

I know this is a program designed to help folks at Stanford look at genomes

But what the heck is it doing on my computer without my express permission?

Anyone know if this is actually running, or merely an invitation to install it?

If it's up and running, how do i Uninstall?
 
The choice of installing Folding@Home was in the first dialog box you see when you run the Catalyst installer.
 
I don't like it being in the installer either, but just uncheck the box and all is well.
 
Well, it seems I never noticed the checkbox. Damage is already done.

How do I uninstall now?
 
DarkSideA8 said:
Well, it seems I never noticed the checkbox. Damage is already done.

How do I uninstall now?
Click to expand...

Add/Remove programs in the control panel? You know, how you uninstall most stuff in Windows? I'm pretty sure its listed there, although I haven't looked for a while.

Alternatively, you could start folding and help find cures. F@H does protein folding (not genome mapping - that's a different program). Bunch of information on it here: http://folding.stanford.edu/ - its a good program. [H] has a folding team (team 33), you should join it.
 
SixtyWattMan said:
Maybe you should read installers instead of furiously clicking the Next button.
Click to expand...

Maybe they should remove that from the installer. I mean come on, are they gonna add Yahoo bar next? That's ridiculous, what does graphics drivers have to do with folding.
 
Though I agree one must look for these things. I am of the opinion they should not be ticked by default. If it's an option, it should be an opt in, not an opt out option.

*shrug*
 
It doesn't actually install it, just puts a link to download it on your desktop (I don't know about the most recent drivers).
 
Motley said:
Maybe they should remove that from the installer. I mean come on, are they gonna add Yahoo bar next? That's ridiculous, what does graphics drivers have to do with folding.
Click to expand...

Folding at home uses GPGPU, that is why its included. Maybe you should learn a little about the program before you just start ranting on it. I think its great that ATI is trying to get exposure for it. It doesn't hurt your computers performance and helps a great cause.
 
this thread made me lol.

You should know by now that even the best software often packages crap (not saying F@H is crap, necessarily) into its installers. I always go slow during installation and do custom installs anyway, if there's an option.
 
Motley said:
Maybe they should remove that from the installer. I mean come on, are they gonna add Yahoo bar next? That's ridiculous, what does graphics drivers have to do with folding.
Click to expand...

Yea, that World of Warcraft trial also sucks. WTF is ATI/AMD doing, whoring themselves out? Get that shit out of the drivers.
 
DarkSideA8 said:
Well, it seems I never noticed the checkbox. Damage is already done.

How do I uninstall now?
Click to expand...

Wow. It's just an application used for educational purporses, not a virus or anything that'll slow down your computer. So Catalyst automatically installed it, just go to add / remove programs and uninstall it. Big deal. You act like your computer lost its virginity from this.
 
kllrnohj said:
Folding at home uses GPGPU, that is why its included. Maybe you should learn a little about the program before you just start ranting on it. I think its great that ATI is trying to get exposure for it. It doesn't hurt your computers performance and helps a great cause.
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter how good / beneficial a program may be. If I pay for a product, I decide what gets installed. Now you'll comment you can opt out, but these installers depend on you clicking right on by. The proper way would be for ATI (or any company) to ask if we'd like to install this additional software after the main software installation.
 
lodingi said:
Doesn't matter how good / beneficial a program may be. If I pay for a product, I decide what gets installed. Now you'll comment you can opt out, but these installers depend on you clicking right on by. The proper way would be for ATI (or any company) to ask if we'd like to install this additional software after the main software installation.
Click to expand...


then dont buy it.. woops.. problem solved.. and you do decide what to install.. uncheck the damn box that asks to install F@H.. woops solved again.. ATI doesnt need to do anything proper.. its been this way for ever.. i mean hell we might as well start complaining about nvidia automatically installing phsyX.. because hell i dont want to use physX how come i dont get to decide if it gets installed or not..

i still see no reason why you are complaining about a 5mb program thats installed.. its not like its going to take up an insane amount of hard drive space.. its not like its a virus.. and it sure as hell isnt going to use any resources unless you manually start the program your self.. but what ever.. i guess no one can be satisfied in this day and age.. we all have to complain about the most useless crap..
 
x3sphere said:
Wow. It's just an application used for educational purporses, not a virus or anything that'll slow down your computer.
Click to expand...

but some people don't wanna pay for their research with their electricity bill.
the number crunching isn't free.
stanford is smart they not only offloaded hardware cost but also electrical cost to someone else while they get the data for approx. free

some people have enough utility bills as it is

i've stopped running it when my hardware became obsolete
 
mistachewey said:
but some people don't wanna pay for their research with their electricity bill.
the number crunching isn't free.
stanford is smart they not only offloaded hardware cost but also electrical cost to someone else while they get the data for approx. free

some people have enough utility bills as it is

i've stopped running it when my hardware became obsolete
Click to expand...


not even close to true.. but if believing that makes you happy.. feel free to believe that.. especially if you account for the hundreds of thousands of dollars Pande group(the actual group that runs F@H not stanford) spends for data storage servers and running their own farm of systems that are also folding.. i guess they must be getting all that for free.. hmmm..
 
lodingi said:
Doesn't matter how good / beneficial a program may be. If I pay for a product, I decide what gets installed. Now you'll comment you can opt out, but these installers depend on you clicking right on by. The proper way would be for ATI (or any company) to ask if we'd like to install this additional software after the main software installation.
Click to expand...

Get off the

soapbox.jpg
 
Motley said:
Maybe they should remove that from the installer. I mean come on, are they gonna add Yahoo bar next? That's ridiculous, what does graphics drivers have to do with folding.
Click to expand...

Nah, I'm with the other dude, learn how to read and u won't have this problem.....
 
mistachewey said:
but some people don't wanna pay for their research with their electricity bill.
the number crunching isn't free.
stanford is smart they not only offloaded hardware cost but also electrical cost to someone else while they get the data for approx. free

some people have enough utility bills as it is

i've stopped running it when my hardware became obsolete
Click to expand...

As far as I know installing through Catalyst does not automatically make F@H start running, you have to manually start it. Just sitting there, it's doing nothing, so this is a total non-issue.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
not even close to true.. but if believing that makes you happy.. feel free to believe that.. especially if you account for the hundreds of thousands of dollars Pande group(the actual group that runs F@H not stanford) spends for data storage servers and running their own farm of systems that are also folding.. i guess they must be getting all that for free.. hmmm..
Click to expand...

lol wait wut? people who use their home PCs for folding get reimbursed for their electric bill?
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
lol wait wut? people who use their home PCs for folding get reimbursed for their electric bill?
Click to expand...


lol no sorry.. ment to say toward the fact that they were basically getting away with doing everything for free while we all had to do the leg work and pay for the electricity..

i wish they did reimburse us.. because theres quite a few of us that are well into the 100's of thousands of dollars on electricity bills.. dang thats a lot of dinners wasted on trying to find a cure.. eh oh well.. *starts writing the 300 dollar check for this months electricity bill*
 
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It takes 10 seconds at most to select custom and look through the list of things being installed.
 
Wow. Firestorm.

FWIW: I don't hate the program, Stanford or ATI. I just want to control how & when my comp is used. Clearly I missed the checkbox when loading from a trusted source.

So, since its one of those programs that doesn't show up in 'add / remove' I guess I'll have to do it manually.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
then dont buy it.. woops.. problem solved.. and you do decide what to install.. uncheck the damn box that asks to install F@H.. woops solved again.. ATI doesnt need to do anything proper.. its been this way for ever.. i mean hell we might as well start complaining about nvidia automatically installing phsyX.. because hell i dont want to use physX how come i dont get to decide if it gets installed or not..

i still see no reason why you are complaining about a 5mb program thats installed.. its not like its going to take up an insane amount of hard drive space.. its not like its a virus.. and it sure as hell isnt going to use any resources unless you manually start the program your self.. but what ever.. i guess no one can be satisfied in this day and age.. we all have to complain about the most useless crap..
Click to expand...

The problem is nothing but what you paid for should be in the default install...nothing. Any extra crap should be presented as "If you would you also like to install xyz click here" I dont care if it 10kb these companies need to quit dumping their shit on peoples computer. They do it this beacuse it will slip under a lot of peoples radar and they damned well know it.

On the other hand it is incumbent on the user to READ what they are installing. Personally I have always gone custom install. These day you have to so you can prevent sneaky shit like this from happening as it has gotten way out of hand. Everyone wants to dump useless shit little apps on your box to get their kick-backs.
 
desk said:
It takes 10 seconds at most to select custom and look through the list of things being installed.
Click to expand...

You don't even have to go to custom, the first thing that pops up when you want to install ATI drivers is a list of check boxes. The are only two check boxes, one is F@H and the other is ATI drivers which cannot be unchecked.
 
Doest it only install upon a reboot?

Because after reading this thread I installed the 9.12's and left it checked on Purpose to see (was going to try and test my setsugen) what happened.

And after the driver install... I double-clicked the desktop FAH icon and it was only a shortcut to the internetz. I had to manually download FAH from the website.
 
Druneau said:
Doest it only install upon a reboot?

Because after reading this thread I installed the 9.12's and left it checked on Purpose to see (was going to try and test my setsugen) what happened.

And after the driver install... I double-clicked the desktop FAH icon and it was only a shortcut to the internetz. I had to manually download FAH from the website.
Click to expand...

No, that is all it "installs" - a shortcut to get the app. That is why everyone is all "lol wut?" at this guy.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
lol no sorry.. ment to say toward the fact that they were basically getting away with doing everything for free while we all had to do the leg work and pay for the electricity..

i wish they did reimburse us.. because theres quite a few of us that are well into the 100's of thousands of dollars on electricity bills.. dang thats a lot of dinners wasted on trying to find a cure.. eh oh well.. *starts writing the 300 dollar check for this months electricity bill*
Click to expand...

free data refers to the stuff they get from us not the things they crunch themselves.
project must be getting pretty large for them to pay 100K for storage servers...

300dollar bill is unheard of for you? we get close to it during the summer months here:confused:

it doesn't need to be 100K a year for it to matter, 100bucks a year saved is still a 100bucks saved. if i was gonna donate to charity i'd do it with a tax write off.
 
I have to say, this is your fault, and nobody else's. It is upon you to read what you are installing. I would understand your outrage if the FAH application was installed as a compulsory part of the driver, or if you weren't told. I admit, the checkbox is kind of small, however, it's no use being all righteous about it. You did get a choice. You just opted to remain ignorant of the choice.
 
I concur with the above rant. I do not want any extraneous programs embedding themselves in the installer or F'IN toolbar offer!!! The toolbar thing I can't stress enough. If you're gonna offer me the program, trial or toolbar with the the installer then please, please, please have it unchecked by default. I get it's all about making a buck or two extra, but I got enough shit software on my PC to manage. My PC usage shouldn't be a constant defense against getting raped... too bad that's exactly what it is.
 
desk said:
It takes 10 seconds at most to select custom and look through the list of things being installed.
Click to expand...

If you're a very slow reader, maybe. :)

If you don't like it, don't install it. Why is this even an issue? :confused:
 
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