One of my colleagues reminded me of a
Dark Pattern
employed by the installer for the
media player for that internet protocol that got the rug pulled
out from under it.
When you got to the shovelware portion of the installer,
it showed you this:
We have partnered with other companies to bring you these
valuable offers.
Select the ones you wish to install.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. ![]() |
LitWare Deluxe Trial Edition |
By LitWare, Inc. |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. ![]() |
ProseWare Search Toolbar |
By ProseWare, Inc. |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. ![]() |
Toy Shopping Toolbar |
By TailSpin Toys |
Clik here to view.

Clik here to view.

You see that everything is unchecked, so you click Next.
You have fallen into the trap.
Look at that scroll bar on the right hand side.
It's scrolled only partway through the list.
And if you had scrolled down the list, you would have seen this:
We have partnered with other companies to bring you these
valuable offers.
Select the ones you wish to install.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. ![]() |
Toy Shopping Toolbar |
By TailSpin Toys |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. ![]() |
Fabrikam Ad Network |
By Fabrikam, Inc. |
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. ![]() |
Web Speed Boost |
By Trey Research, Inc. |
Clik here to view.

Clik here to view.

That's right.
All the items you could see without scrolling
were unchecked by default,
but everything else was
checked by default.
As my colleague noted,
"This may be one of the few times where it cost more to be placed
below the fold."
Bonus reading:
One of the pieces of bundled software was
an app that wants to crash.