# Can I, Souldd I trust Chinese software? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 13, 2015, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755 "2015-08-13T17:41:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755/1 "2015-08-13T17:41:13Z")
I bought a USB external CD burner from Amazon. They sell boat loads of them, all pretty much the same, all pretty much from China. It got here and it comes with a disk labeled “Driver”. How do I trust this? How do I know that I’m not installing some kind of worm or virus that will take over my shit, steal my identity and ruin my life? :eek: Or am I just being paranoid? Would _you_ install this on _your_ computer? 😕 The sad truth is, I’m probably already as compromised as I can get. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![ReticulatingSplines](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@ReticulatingSplines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReticulatingSplines)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755/2 "2015-08-13T17:45:33Z")
Yes, you should, because bundling an outdated virus on the driver disc for a product you sell is literally the dumbest virus-delivery mechanism I can think of. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755/3 "2015-08-13T17:46:19Z")
Who made the drive? I would hope that the major names would catch that sort of thing quick. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755/4 "2015-08-13T17:50:26Z")
I’d worry less about viruses and more about having wasted my money. ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755/5 "2015-08-13T18:22:15Z")
Try hooking it up without using the driver software. It won’t hurt anything to try. Modern operating systems seem to be pretty good at recognizing external devices and running them without having to install external drivers. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755/6 "2015-08-13T19:14:43Z")
Yeah I agree with **Mind’s Eye**. I can’t remember the last time I installed a manufacturer’s driver. Windows has them all. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755/7 "2015-08-13T19:26:34Z")
If it didn’t ship with the CD and you went to their site to download drivers, would you trust that? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755/8 "2015-08-13T19:50:05Z")
I plugged it in. Seems to be a “Plug n Play” and the computer recognizes it, but it doesn’t do what I want it to do. (rip cd’s to WMP, retrieving media info) Or more likely, I don’t know how to make it do what I want it to do. ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755/9 "2015-08-13T20:10:17Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I plugged it in. Seems to be a “Plug n Play” and the computer recognizes it, but it doesn’t do what I want it to do. (rip cd’s to WMP, retrieving media info) > > Or more likely, I don’t know how to make it do what I want it to do. You can do that with Windows Media Player, I think. Never tried it, though… ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755/10 "2015-08-13T20:15:27Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > … but it doesn’t do what I want it to do. (rip cd’s to WMP, retrieving media info) Ah, you need other software to do that. ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755/11 "2015-08-13T20:19:18Z")
Yeah, unless you bought a quality CD Burner that comes with software (such as Nero) then you’ll have to go find some software to tell the burner what to do. A CD burner is just a piece of hardware, and all it can do is follow instructions. If all you bought is a piece of hardware, a piece of hardware is all you have. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755/12 "2015-08-13T20:19:22Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I plugged it in. Seems to be a “Plug n Play” and the computer recognizes it, but it doesn’t do what I want it to do. (rip cd’s to WMP, retrieving media info) > . Just to be sure here you do know you need separate software ASIDE from the device driver to do that right? Even a 1993 era CD-ROM drive can rip CDs, and to retrieve media info you need an internet source. ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755/13 "2015-08-13T20:29:58Z")
Just tried this with Windows Media Player (included with Windows), and I think it does everything you need - rips CDs to MP3, WAV or other formats…burns a disc…retrieves media info… ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755/14 "2015-08-13T20:42:42Z")
I’ve got Window Media Player on this notebook thing. But it does not have a CD drive. I was hopin’ to plug this USB drive in and rip my audio cd’s. It reads them, but doesn’t retrieve any info (I don’t feel like manually adding 10,000 song titles). I suppose I could do a bunch of half-assed steps to get the files into WMP, then tell WMP to go retrieve and update the library, but that has its drawbacks also. I’ll come up with something better. At least it was cheap and I could send it back also. ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755/15 "2015-08-13T20:48:42Z")
In Windows Media Player, go to “Rip Settings”, then “More options”, then click on the “Library” tab, then in the “Automatic media information updates for files” check the “Retrieve additional information from the internet” radio button. There may be other options to help refine all of this. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-souldd-i-trust-chinese-software/727755/16 "2015-08-13T20:57:51Z")
Here is the whole, long, stupid, boring and ugly story: I had a nice desktop. Ran version 10 (the best I’ve found) of WMP. Ripped all my cd’s, had all the info correct and worked like a charm. Was able to organize, sync, burn all my music. Had about 12k titles. Hard drive crashed. Lost it all on that unit. Had maybe 4k titles on this notebook and various portable devices. A total random mix. Replaced hard drive on desktop. Working, but blank. This unit has a burner, but is incompatible with version 10. Also got a third computer up and running that was discarded by Mother-in-law. Old and slow, but runs version 10. No burner (at the time- I recently stuck one in and it will rip, but not burn) So, I’ve transferred all the tracks I have to all 3 machines, and between the 3 can do what I intend to do (replace all 12 thousand titles, organize and rip/burn discs), but it would be easier to do it all on one, and basically use the other 2 as simply back-ups. (Lesson learned!) If I can get a hard internet connection to the old Mother-in-law machine, I’ll be in business to rip my cd collection over (WMP recognizes the titles already in the library and won’t duplicate them), then I can easily copy them to the unit with a burner and the notebook. That is my stupid story. Thanks for any grief or advice you can heap on me. I deserve it.