I was wondering why the installation of the GOG.com Downloader was taking so long, and I noticed downloading activity while the install script was running even though I had no other programs accessing the Internet at that time. I took a look at my firewall logs and a certain "Suite Toolkit Integation Executable" setup file from a temporary directory accessed the Net without permission and amazingly it went through the firewall without me giving explicit permission for it to go past it. I took a look at other changes afterwards and indeed .NET Framework was installed and even accessed the Net to download the rest of that huge .NET Framework installation files without the setup program even informing the user:
(Product name Microsoft® .NET Framework
File name C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.0\Windows Communication Foundation\ServiceModelReg.exe
Last policy update Not applicable
Version 3.0.4506.2152 (SP.030729-0100)
Last modified date 7/29/2008 19:16:38
File size 153 KB
.

It's just annoying to have that bloated M$ crap installed without permission (and replace a huge number of other important Windows system files and alter system settings) just to use a simple download program. GOG.com should make the installation more transparent and give the user the choice to go through with it or not. If I knew that the Downloader program would do all that to my system I wouldn't have bothered with it and just downloaded the games manually.

The main fault for me that downloader has not official info / special page with system requirements on GOG - at least I haven't found that yet. Yes, you can get that info if you are user of the forum - but I bet most people on GOG do not browse forum and downloader is important part of GOG for many users. I think Community tab on top bar should be replaced by something like "Tools" with at least three options: Community / Downloader / Wishlist.

Oh boy.

Here, have a cookie.

Let me guess what is next: ".NET is spyware!"

Well, I suppose that's not a problem here. It's an installation of something without user permission I think. When I reinstalled system last time, installation of .NET was kinda painful in terms of "proper order to install different drivers / tools / software". At some point I had to reinstall system again as .NET stopped to be "visible" and some Windows autoupdates were trying to install the same update over and over again. If at this moment something would tell me "install that again" or replace my current configuration of drivers or something similar I would be mad.

Well, since he's installing .NET, I bet he's still using XP. Silent installs go without a question on XP, and this is not only .NET specific.

Well, OP, I think you should seriously consider using one of the Linux distributions as your main OS. I hate to break it to you, but Windows is Microsoft crap as well, and .NET framework is a little more than another upgrade of their system.

No Way!

Btw, I thought that whole M"$" was over since '99?

Hardcore haters still use it, because they are hardcore!

.Net is an application framework that was used to build the downloader. It's an essential component of the downloader, so installing the downloader naturally includes installing .Net as well. Having .Net installed doesn't mess up your computer - it's just a software package that can be uninstalled like most others if you're so inclined. .Net takes up a little bit of your disc space, but is useful to have installed because there's a lot of other software out there that also depends on it, so your computer is now able to run those applications too.

Now, for an installer to access the internet without informing the user first is very obnoxious and usually should not happen. I don't remember whether the GOG.com downloader asked before downloading .Net (I don't think it did) but matters like this are traditionally sorted out while software is in Beta so I'm not too perturbed about it.

Nope, it most certainly doesn't ask. But when people complained that gog installers install adobe acrobat reader without asking, gog changed it, as well with dosbox, so I guess they'll do the same for this downloader as well.

I still liked the no-install, no dependencies approach of the previous downloader the most, I mean, it's not like you need to use .NET functions to make a downloader.

You mean the one written on Adobe Air? ;)

It doesn't ask only on XP. It doesn't need to ask on Vista and 7. It asks for permissions on 8.

Previous, not previous previous.

Well duh, it's salready installed on Vista and 7, and I have no damn clue why .NET 4.0 isn't backwards compatible

That is exactly my point, the setup program for the GOG downloader doesn't ask permission or even informs the user it would have to install the .NET framework with it, it also accessed the Net and completely bypassed ZoneAlarm.

The rest of the responses are patronizing non-sequiturs. Of course I know what the .NET framework is, that's why I didnt want it to be installed because I have come across many tiny programs (50-200KB files) before that required it, as if their programmers are too lazy or ignorant to build a more self-contained application that doesn't need a bloated library 10000+ times bigger than the actual program. At least those programs have the courtesy of informing the user that it actually would need to have the .NET framework installed for it to work. Relax, I never claimed that. What gave you that idea? What I said was that the setup program accessed the Internet without user permission. Yes, I use XP because I feel no compelling need to upgrade it yet. And no, silent installs are not the norm. At least most other programs have the courtesy of informing the user if it would need to install other software and give the user an option to not install those other software or completely back out of installing the main program. Wow, thanks for stating the obvious. I don't need Linux because I need maximum compatibility to play games designed on Windows, especially older ones that were designed to run on even older versions of it. Thanks, I know all that. My point is that it was never pointed out nor is the user informed during the installation process that it would be needed to run the GOG Downloader. Because if I knew that, like I said, I wouldn't have bothered and would have just opted to download the games manually. 3.0.25 is not the latest beta version. It's the current release.

If you need maximum compatibility with games, then you need .NET 3.5 and .NET 4.0 installed. :p