Ant Video Downloader

[devilcoelhodog]

See above:





---> http://www.ant.com/video-downloader/

I do not know if its good, bad, buggy, etc. Test it for yourselves.

EDITED: in my opinion, DownloadHelper works better for me. But, it's always nice to have more options than one single tool to work with. :P

http://www.cosmin.com/colordetector/ ( nice tool )

Best regards.

devil (johner)

[wguru]

While I've used Ant Downloader since version 1.0.6, then 1.6, it wasn't until I upgraded Symantec's NAV2010 to '2011 that I began to experience quite a number of issues surrounding Ant Downloader and it's 'force-wares' that include 'automatic Ant Toolbar update checks' which result in update pop-ups apparently related to Ant Downloader and/or it's Ant Search utility, ie; those 'new toolbar' pop-ups are non-descreipt, ie; not labeled as relating to any program or utility as all these pop-ups say "new toolbar - do you want to install it...". No doubt they are Ant related as only after I un-installed Ant's Downloader, did the incessant pop-ups cease. And before I was relegated to un-installing Ant's Downloader, I tried everthing I knew of towards identifying who's toolbar it was (and to stop the pop-ups), but nothing except un-installing Ant's Downloader stopped the pop-ups.

So that seems to support my assumption that the "new toolbar" is/was related to Ant Downloader and as such, it is/was one of the most agregiously arrogant and blatantly lazy efforts at providing an update alert, whether or not it's wanted (as nobody wants to merely be asked if they want to install a new toolbar without knowing what it relates to and where it's from, at least nobody I know).

Not only was the "New toolbar available - Do you want to install it" seen nearly every time I opened my Windows 7 IE8 broswer, but that pop-up repeatedly appeared even after I've clicked "No", plus it persisted in re-appearing after my borwser had been open for a short while and still my again and again clicking "No" to the pop-up, did nothing to stop it's incessant reappearances (even if I disabled one or the other or even both of the IE8 Add-Ons that are/were Ant related).

And note that while the pop-ups were still on my screen and even after I clicked "No", at neither times was I able to find any indications as to what the "new toolbar" ralted to, ref. my uses of Event Viewer, Process Explorer, Windows 7's Action Center and even Software Informer, as none of those utilities so much as afforded a hint at any attempts to install a new toolbar, nor any update software downloads or download attempts, so I'm at a loss as to how to 100% confirm that the 'new toolbar was Ant related (except that once Ant was un-installed, the 'new toolbar' pop-ups stopped).

As for anyone who installs un-identfied Add-Ons or Toolbars on their machines without first knowing 'what toolbar' it is and/or at least where it is coming from (or is related to), needless to say, that's essentially playing Russian Roulette with 3 of the 6 chambers having live rounds in them. So how in the world could anyone ever could expect us not to complain about what seems to be Ant's force-ware update utility and it's carelessly designed 'new toolbar' pop-ups, is simply beyond me.

But in that Ant Support is ignoring my repeated requests for help with identifying the 'new toolbar' pop-ups, in addition to those matters, yet more issues relate to Ant's Downloader, ie; it's "uninstaller.exe" file and the folder it resides in.

That issue is seen using Symantec's NAV2011's "Download Intelligence" and "File Insight" featurews, of which both refuse to allow me to set Ant's "uninstaller.exe" as "trusted". This tells me that there's something potentially 'fishy' about Ant's 'uninstaller', ie; it resides in a folder that replicates itself if deleted, and that folder is not in the programs folder, instead it's in a mysteriously protected temp folder.

And while Symantec's Support is at least replying back (un-like Ant's), as usual Symantec's is giving me the run-around as they refuse to install Ant Downloader and re-create the issue and they refuse to escalate the issue to second level support even though it is undenieably a bug in NAV2011 (as the issue with the un-changed Ant Downloader was unseen until upgrading to NAV2011 from NAV2010).

So sadly I've un-installed Ant Downloader from my machines and it seems I'll do without, for what was other wise, the next greatest thing since DVDDecrypter and DVDShrink.

And I do so for but one reason, I like many, have spent a lot of time, effort and money towards keeping my machines free of adware, malware, Trojans and/or viruses, not to mention 'back-door update' regiments that install themselves (along with who knows whatever else) with or without my knowledge or control, not unlike Microsoft's automatic updates that installs about 50% of updates that have absolutely nothing to do with things we're running and/or that we have installed (while many of their updates are non-uninstallable).

So if I'm correct and the 'new toolbar; is actually Ant's auto update (that itself amounts to 'force-ware'), I for one refuse to be subjected to prompts at downloading un-identified "new toolbar"(s) and being denied use of my Anti-Viruse's safety features my. So my only recourse at avoiding the incessant pop-ups and turning back on my AV's full features, was to un-install Ant Downloader (as that alone stopped the 'new toolbar' update pop-ups' and I now once more run NAV2011's "Download Intelligence" and "File Insight" as no longer doe they prompt me about Ant's "uninstaller.exe" every time I opened my browser).

Lastly, regarding Ant's Search Utility (assumedly the 'toolbar' of issue) which I see as 'force-ware, not only because it rudely and rather covertly resulted in over-riding my preferred default Search provider (Google) and made Ant's Search the default seach utility, but moreover if I recall correctly, it did that repeatedly because more than once I believe I recall having to change the default search utility (IE8 add-on) from Ant's back to Google's.

And from what I seem to also recall (correct me if I'm wrong here) my initial install of Ant Downloader 'feigned' to allow me to opt out of auto updates/update checks/update notifications and/or I also opted out of making Ant's Search utility my default search provider, and neither of which did anything towards preventing Ant update dialogs and/or browser 'hi'jackings'.

Nevertheless, sadly Ant Downloader seems to have become more problems and annoyances than it's worth.

[bernardo-b]

Damn, that sounds like a horrible piece of software! I'm glad I never installed it, there's a porn site I really like that recommends it. I'll give it a try to Download Helper then. Thanks a lot for a very comprehensive review!