I downloaded a 30-day free trial version of Tune Up Utilities. It checks my system registry and performs other PC maintenance checks, and usually corrects whatever problems it finds with one click.
The 30 days are over, but the system checker still works – with a caveat. It makes me wait 179 seconds before I can begin the check. I don’t mean that it takes 179 seconds for the program to boot up. I mean, a window apprears that basically says, “Your 30-day trial version of Tune Up Utilities has expired, but you can still get a system check if you wait 179 seconds.” A countdown bar appears on screen so you can watch the 179 seconds tick off.
What the heck is going on here? Why the odd wait? If they’re still willing to let me use the checker, why not just let me begin? Is this standard practice for all trial versions of software?
I’m assuming the 179 second delay would be enough to annoy you in you rant it frequently so you would register. I also assume if you run it so infrequently you can wait almost 2 minutes they don’t care about the revenue from you.
The “179” might be the number of days since it was installed. I’ve seen things like that, so that it gets progressively worse the longer the amount of time that you continue using the software illegally.
WinZip does the same thing. The longer you use it past the trial period, the higher the wait count. Point being, if you use it often enough, you’ll want to pay up to avoid having to wait each time.
Yep. Nagware can be annoying but it’s still better than turning it into crippleware, wherein its functionality is either diminished or disabled altogether after the trial period expires.
I’ve used a few trial prorgams where it’s nagware from the beginning, but starts off at 1 second and increases every day, so by the end of two months you’re waiting 2 minutes to gain access to it.
Usually though if I find a program quite useful I’ll generally know before the trial period is up and either register or not.