Ugh! I have to install Garmin Express?

Installing Garmin Express will not effect the other programs. Keep in mind MapSource has not been supported for some time by Garmin. I still use it with no problems. I was slow to come over to Garmin Express but the last few map updates have went well.

How do you know that you need to use Garmin Express? Did you try registering your Nuvi the old way, that is, directly on the Garmin Web site? Just wondering.

Phil

Yes, The website said I had to install GE to register my nuvi.

There used to be a back door method to register an automotive Garmin device without using Garmin Express. It was documented in this post: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/42321?page=0#comment-363312.

Unfortunately Garmin discovered that customers were using this work around and disabled it some time ago. AFAIK, no one has discovered any other method to register a device and avoid Express.

I installed GE and registered my nuvis. No problem, except GE took forever to install.

I have a Zumo 450 & a Zumo 550 that will not take a full NA update, I use Mapsource with no problems to install to a SD card what won't fit on the unit itself.

I have been using GE for a couple of years now without any problems. I may not be trying to do things others are...I don't know. I simply use it to install map and firmware updates. Works flawlessly here for me.

I don't see any problem to update the GE software when pop up with a new update, same to install a new map or software update to my NUVI.
Maybe some guys need to update their computers to this millenium. Please,no ofense.

exactly my experience, with my two 2460's, my Zumo 450 and my Zumo 550.

I have had no problems using Garmin Express to load map updates and software/firmware updates to my 3 Nuvis and my VivoFit. I just used POI loader to update the Red Light camera file with no issues.

Same here... I use GE and POI loader ON A MAC!!!

SO no worries here!

I remember putting GE on my computer when it first came out. I deleted it but don't remember why. I may try it again someday but MapUpdater works fine for now. Do not see getting a new GPS for a while so will cross that bridge when I get there.
(but you know me, always changing my mind)

Does Garmin Express [still] continuously run in the background on computers?

No, at least not as long as you disable it in the Settings. After each update, check that the settings are maintained.

I was a long-time avoider and disliker of GE for quite some time. But recent versions do work and I keep and use it on my PC, with all the auto-stuff disabled.

GE is also better than the alternative for those with devices that offer a digital elevation map display:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/44415

On the other hand, those still running Windows XP can not use GE and must use GarminMapUpdater.

I feel your pain when it comes to Garmin Express. It's one of those little annoyances in life that you try to avoid. Kinda like drinking a glass of warm buttermilk. Good luck.

As CraigW stated, Express allows you to turn off the automatic background operation. However even when the background operation is disabled, I have noticed that Garmin Express still executes and initializes itself when I boot my computer (Windows Vista 64 bit). During the boot process, the Garmin Express icon will show in the Windows tray for about a half minute. It then shuts itself down and stays dormant until I decide to run it again.

Alan. I don't see that in Windows 10 and the same when I used Windows 8.1. Just to be sure I rebooted computer and click on Task Manager right away and GE doesn't show at all. Only when I click the icon to execute will it appear in TM.Nothing in the tray at all.

Just finish uploading the recent map to all of my 3 GPSr using Mapudater.

Do your 3590 and 3790 devices still have their DEM maps?

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/44415

Charlie,
This may be a Vista only situation. I suspect Vista will soon be unsupported by Garmin Express (just like XP). Here is what I have found.

I have unchecked both settings for "Always keep Garmin Express running in background" and "Automatically launch Garmin Express when a device is connected". Yet, when I reboot, I still see the Garmin Express icon show up in the windows tray for a few seconds. Then it goes away unless I decide to start Garmin Express.

When I run MSCONFIG and check the startup items, "Garmin Express Tray" is listed and checked. I can of course uncheck this and then I will not see the Express icon when I boot. But the next time Express is updated, this startup item will be reenabled unless I go into MSCONFIG and disable it again.

It has not really caused any issues except adding a few seconds on to the computers boot time.

The negative posts have been made by a minority of users. The large number of users like me who have no trouble with Garmin Express have no reason to post and complain.

Multiple times in the past there have been bugs in Garmin Express and, as they appeared, Garmin fixed them only to create more bugs. This is now ancient history. Garmin Express has run without difficulty on both of my PCs (Windows 7 x64 fully updated) for the last year.

Granted, some posters still have difficulty. The likely reason for this is the combination of various operating systems, antivirus, firewall, etc., or the PC not being updated. If Garmin Express will not run correctly, it is likely not a Garmin Express issue.

dobs108

I agree with the points made by dobs108. Garmin Express had serious problems in the early releases, but it has been quite stable for most users in the past year or more.

In addition to the causes identified by dobs108, I think a lot of the map updating problems are caused by ISP/networking speed/stability issues. The map download for my 3597 is now over 6 GB. That is a huge amount of data and requires a reasonably robust and stable Internet connection. In recent versions, Garmin has improved the recovery/restart features in Garmin Express when a map update fails, so often it will pick up where it left off after a download failure.

Some users still have problems installing Garmin Express (both windows and mac versions), but if they get it installed successfully, more than likely it will update maps and perform device software updates just fine.

I have to copy the Dem file to the GPS.

Never have used Vista but to speed up your boot time you can uncheck Garmin Express at boot in maconfig.
Next go into "Services" and change "Garmin Device" from automatic to manual. This will disable GE from starting.

By doing so Garmin Express will still work although it may take a little while to load. This is how I have my Win7 set up.
It's not that I use GE frequently so I can wait awhile when I need it and free up resources for a faster boot on a daily basis.

To register or check for updates through Garmin Website you had to have plug-in installed in your browser. It's discontinued now (I think) so it will be impossible to register this way.

It you don't want GE installed, just install it and then uninstall once you finish with registration process.

That is a good point grzesja about the dependency on the Garmin Communicator plugin and its discontinuation. However, the old "back door" method of device registrition that I referred to in the earlier post didn't require the plugin. And as I recall it didn't even require that you connect your device to the computer. It allowed you to manually enter the device serial number on the registration input form. So Garmin could still support this registration method if they chose to do so. I am sure they have their reasons for wanting us to use Express for device registration.

I wrote it when I had a refurbished unit and a registration issue.
It still works.

I am very happy with Garmin Express. My only beef is that it was set to download all updates automatically by default. Not a good policy for those of us will limited internet. I have that setting turned off, but will leave it running in the background to keep me informed of new updates.

That is helpful to know.

I think pwohlrab is referring to his post here: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/44211?page=0#comment-389558. I do now recall the fiasco pwohlrab went through on registering his refurbished nuvi, which was impossible to get registered through Garmin Express. So Garmin support sent him the following link for manual registration: https://my.garmin.com/mygarmin/registration/gettingStarted.h....

It appears that this back door link still works!

Short answer to your question is yes all the other tools work too.

Glad I don't need to deal with GE. I've never used it and am happy updating my maps with the regular map updater. I have old units so I don't need to worry about registering at this point. If I ever get an updated Garmin - probably not since none of them can do the things my old 760 units can do - I will try my best to register it without installing GE. If I do end up installing it I will disable it as I really hate stuff that runs in the background all the time.

GE has come along way!
they keep trying to make it more and more user friendly!

Been using it for a while now and had no problems

You can still go to WWW.MYGARMIN.com and register a device and update the firmware if you have an account. You can also unregister devices from your account in order to transfer ownership. Mygarmin still refers you to Garmin Express for map installation.

I think that someday Garmin will force users to install GE in order to do any software and map updates.

I just tried to register a new device a couple of weeks ago using MyGarmin. Only thing it would let me do was download "Garmin Express". 1st time I've ever used GE but it did work just fine.

My desktop and laptop PCs were both purchased this year, with solid state C: drives and 3TB E: on the desktop, 128GB on my laptop convertible. GE is still incapable of installing to an alternate drive. I won't install 2GB of maps on the high speed SSD's.

I don't waste my time anymore to see what's broken with GE. Garmin has the nerve to MAKE people install their GE program to register? That's pretty harsh when Junior still can't complete his GE program to do something as simple as install to another PC drive. I'm tired of debugging Garmin's poor programming.

If Garmin makes you install GE to register, simply uninstall after registration and continue to use GarminMapUpdater.

I have both on my PC, I updated my Zumo 450 with GE and my Zumo 550 with GMU just to see if I could, no problems with either one, both installs went flawlessly and I used Mapsource to add what wouldn't fit directly to the inserted SD card on both.

I have often wondered if the people who slam Garmin (and for that matter any business that has software) ever think about the cost of their "suggestions" for what the software ought to do.

I understand why someone would want to keep a SSD free of software other than the operating system. But - is it a reasonable request to ask the maintainers of the software to add such a feature when the vast majority of users do not care where the installation is? And note, only a minority of Garmin "users" are on those who have "On the Road" devices. Most have "fitness" devices and they want to have GE upload and synchronize data every few days so they can track their training regimens.

From an economic standpoint, Garmin would like to have one major piece of software that will be able to service the entirety of the lines of devices they offer. Why should Garmin spend effort on "legacy" systems for only a few people?

If Garmin wants to install the map on the SSD drive and you do not want it there, then you could move it to another drive (like a USB) or delete it entirely. I assume you do not back up your device on the SSD but do it on another drive.

The reason Garmin wants to "register" a product (not just "On the Road" devices) is to keep people from pirating maps and to make sure that a user is able to have Garmin keep the data about their devices available for tracking.

By all means, uninstall GE after map updates.

This discussion has gotten out in left field. Unless you are very high up in Garmin management you have no idea why they operate there business the way they do. For someone to say they know what Garmin's economic standpoint is is pure speculation and innuendo.
GE works for some people and not for others. You are just going to have to live with that fact and please....have a nice day.

Having spent over twenty years as head of software development for a large corporation which included cost justifications to support long range plans, perhaps I may indeed have the experience to "speculate" on Garmin's thought process relative to GE.

GE works for most people, but whether it worked was not the issue leading to my comments on assertions by dave817. He thinks that Garmin should provide installation to an alternate location to C:\Program Files(x86); that there should be other ways to "register" than GE; that GE is "broken"; and, that he is "tired of debugging Garmin's poor programming." We were already "out in left field" when I made my comments.

I would have thought that dave817's comments could be called "innuendo" but would not have said such about my comments.

Have a nice day.

I have been using GE since it came out... never have had a problem..

I felt the same way about GE but I installed it and have not had any problems with map updates. I still have to load my POIs manually though using POI Loader.