Serious Anxiety: Did I just make a HUGE mistake? I installed some Creative software for my Creative USB sound card

Questions
1

Good morning,

I know how much this community values the importance of keeping the amount of software installed to a bare minimum, but I was having an issue where my volume output wouldn’t increase or decrease when uson my USB Creative sound card on my Windows 10 PC and installing this Creative software seemed like the best idea as it also contained a firmware update and driver update.

It’s also from the “Official Creative” download site:

This is the exact link I used to download the software:

URL: Creative Worldwide Support - Sound Blaster PLAY! 4

The exact version I downloaded is called " Creative App For Windows (v1.16.02.00)"

My big worry is that I’ve installed software that will allow Creative to access my microphone and record everything I say without me knowing about it… :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

I really hope I didn’t just make a huge mistake!

Thank you for reading my question!

1 Like
2

You’re fine. Adobe doesn’t make malware and they certainly aren’t accessing your microphone without you knowing about it. It’s good that you’re concerned about keeping software to a minimum though.

2 Likes
3

I appreciate your reply!

I just did some checking and I don’t see any mention that Creative(the audio company) is owned by Adobe?

Also, Creative make hardware as well as software.

4

It is not owned by adobe

3 Likes
5

Yeah, maybe the confusion was because of Adobe Creative Cloud.

4 Likes
6

Creative seems to be the 1990s option.

If youre paying for good music, might as well go for external DAC? Schiit seems to come to mind but that seems like a late 2010s recommendation?

1 Like
7

I appreciate your replies!

I’m still a newbie when it comes to being an audiophile so I don’t know much!

I’m not even with how external DACs make the audio experience better?

I just checked for external DACs I could find on Amazon and those prices are pretty high!

This is the Creative device I bought: Server Busy

By the way, the Creative Windows 10 PC App I installed also installed a new driver and right now it says there’s an update available for my firmware as well. Is it safe to update?