Auto-Update sets Opera as default

[wtkad]

Started Opera this morning, and got a progress box that said "Removing Previous Versions". Not something that inspires confidence. Apparently 10.5 has auto-updates, and I just wasn't aware of it. I'm not crazy about programs reinstalling themselves with no warning, but fair enough, I can understand why because of security issues.

But as the title says - it automatically set itself as the default browser, plus changed the file associations for htm and html files to Opera WITHOUT asking. Firefox has always been my default browser, Opera used as secondary, and I expect better behavior than that. Not cool.

It also messed up my appearance settings - things were back on the status bar that I had removed previously, and the menu bar was gone again. If it hadn't kept my speed dial websites, I would have thought it was a fresh install. Even the skin is different. Not things I expect to be changed in a minor auto-update.

I lost some respect for Opera today.

[Fotiman]

I just started Opera to see this for myself. I saw the "Removing Previous Version" dialog briefly, then another dialog which had a checkbox to "Automatically install updates without notification from now on" (which was checked by default), and buttons "Download and Install", "Remind Me Later", and "Help". I chose to Download and Install.

Near the end of the download, I got an error that said:
"An error occurred during download (could not validate file). Unfortunately, we are not able to recover from this error automatically."

I chose to "Resume", which seemed to do the download again, this time with no problem. I ran the install and when it was done, it hadn't changed any of my file associations. My default browser (which is not Opera) still opens .htm and .html files when I double click on those file types.

So my experience was not as bad as yours.

[wtkad]

I didn't get an option box like yours, but I've now set in the preferences to notify me rather than installing updates automatically, so hopefully that will trigger it next time. It was set to notify before I installed 10.50, which is why it caught me off guard today.

I found a comment on Opera's blog where someone mentioned Opera being set as default, so I'm not completely alone. Maybe it has been fixed now? I hope so, at least. I don't know when the update was actually downloaded - could have been yesterday while it was running, or this morning when I opened it.

Saw a few other comments that said the "Windows Native" skin is not "native", so that may be the cause of the skin change I've noticed. Mostly personal preference, I suppose I'll get used to it. But still disappointing that it would lose my customizations in a minor upgrade.