Microsoft force-installs Firefox extension!! !

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Ok. Read my font.

"stop forced restarts"

I'll repeat myself. I know how to configure updates in both xp and vista. You find you have a hard time instructing people if you dont listen to them.

I want to stop forced restarts.

They irritate me too. If I'm very busy I think to myself, "I'll reboot at lunchtime in a couple of hours time" but the damn popup keeps harassing me every ten minutes. An acceptable work around I've found is to drag the reminder window off the bottom right of the screen so only the tip of its left corner is showing; then I can ignore it.

Regarding Windows update I have mine set to tell me when updates are available. I've just realised why I've been getting grief with Vista updates... As RoadRacer mentioned the option to hide updates is hidden under a right click of the update on Vista. As I remember on XP the option to hide unwanted updates was visible and clickable; hence the frustration with Vista windows updates not been able to find the option to hide unwanted updates. Windows update for XP has a 'Custom' option. Vista does not.

Another part of the problem with Vista updates is the scope of the update. If an update to Visual Studio or Network Framework becomes available then I need it, but I do not expect that some subtle part of the update is to mess with Firefox without asking, nor provide a means to remove the Firefox add-on. Microsoft went too far with that. They should at least ask during the update process. It seems that this issue annoyed a lot of developers who subsequently found themselves manually removing the extension from Firefox via the about:config then deleting certain Visual Studio files then hacking the registry - all the steps needed to get rid of it.

No, not in this case. Nit-picking this sort of thing is petty at best; it's a years old habit I'm trying to break out of. Fundamentally, flat-out ragging on Microsoft is not going to help anything. See JORDSBABY's post for an example of flat-out ragging, which neither posits a solution, nor identifies an addressable problem.

Where I stand is that I am now so far removed from "The Windows Experience(TM)" that I am no longer able to make viable detailed comments about the usability of it, especially of Vista. Windows Updates is one of those things that are completely new in Windows wrt Windows 95 (the last Windows OS I used), and one that pervades Vista enough to be considered a fundamental component. What this means to me is that people may start calling me up about wth Windows Update is doing, and I need to be at the ready for it.

Due to a confluence of personal philosophy/ideology, recent legal trends, and Microsoft's [legal] culture, I understand that I am basically prohibited from interacting with Windows Update. I really have no idea how Windows Update works. Thus, I have to rely on others' experiences to get an idea of its behavior.

I do have my grievances with Microsoft, although I don't think it really amounts to "hate" any more. Maybe hate their behavior, but the entity itself... still deciding. If anything, I'd say "pity" or "disappointment"... I can't help but see what potential Microsoft has in effecting genuine improvements in the field of computing (interoperability/standards support, security, human-computer interfacing), but they keep going about with their maddening business-as-usual.

I also have beefs with Ubuntu's Update Manager, and the other related paraphernalia on other GNU/Linux distros (such as, why a tray item? Why not an intra-system IM/e-mail/wall(1)? Where's the wmaker dock applet?). In conjunction with Windows Update, I feel the underlying problem amounts to lack of an established idiom for carrying out system updates in general. That right now presentation of system updates is kind of ad-hoc, or at least nascent, which is why (a) dealing with updates has been differing radically over short period of time (i.e. depends on system version in use), and (b) why many people can't figure it out on their own (they don't "get it"). Just a thought.

So this is how matters stands:

• I have no experience using Windows Updates, nor do I think I am allowed to.
• The information you provided has been helpful and educational.
• I still have my beefs with Microsoft, but there's enough invective complaining going around.
• The approach I'm trying to take is working with Windows's existence with minimal future disruptions ("peaceful but wary coexistence" if you will).

I read your font very well, and I understood you, and also I gave you the solution. If you update when you want to, and are ready, the restart is not "forced" because you will be anticipating it. That is how I do it, do you really think I just let my system do whatever it wants? People must think I just let it install things and restart when ever it feels like it, I dont think so!! !! I am done because I have said everything I can possible say about this, the solutions are there if anyone wants them.

I have one machine running Win 2k SP3, so that gets me off the hook.
Purposely got an XP machine instead of Vista, and disabled updates on that one.

Works for me.

Dragging this back up. Confirmed forced restarts.

I stepped away from windows to feed my cats and let them out. I came back and I was at the log in screen. Logged in and windows had a message that it installed an important security update and needed to restart. No ten minute nag, no option. On its own, restarted.

Important document was open. Today's date: April 16th, 2009, time 3:22am. Last edit date of document: March 29th, 2009, time 4:11 am.

So I will say it again:

Windows can and does restart itself after updates.
no nag screen. It takes matters into its own hands.
your open documents will not be saved.
It is behavior that happens after the update, regardless of automatic settings.

It is not desirable. It is forced. It is not safe to walk away from your windows xp machine.

You can have a poke in the registry, though I don't remember where exactly, and it would be editing hex.

Now, you can set it to only tell you about updates, so then you at least know when it will be pulling that ninja restart crap. Also, you can just flat out turn off updates, and then go to the site about once a week. Wednesday is the best day, as all scheduled updates drop on Tuesday and the servers get bogged.

Kenith_Sobel may know more, he's looking. Linux has no use for your registry, so I'm not too keen on how to dig through it.

you can try this i dont know if your running home or pro or not

this is for pro
Stop XP Auto Update Reboots with Group Policy Editor
http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2006/02/11/438009.aspx

home is just a pain in the As*

Thanks KenithSobel and kip. Yes I have xp pro. Thats perfect.

One of these days I need to say "F-it" and drop the dual boot and just use Linux. I'm increasingly unhappy in windows in comparison.

I am a bit confused. How does this effect the use of the computer? or firefox

Ok I have learned that it is spyware. I am sure they are not going to steal anyone credit card detail or do anything gray market.

Microsoft is allowed to do that. Its in the EULA Agreement you get when you buy a new computer or install Windows. Microsoft has made the same registry changes and updates that 3rd-Party software before. The Doom, Doom II, Final & Ultimate Doom port to Windows was just Microsoft Win95 version of Doom. ID Software even addressed this during the Windows 95 launch!!

Microsoft has to do this to ensure compatibilities within the combination of Mozilla Firefox and Windows. Linux does the same thing with Firefox in GNOME and KDE.

Is that aviator you? You kind of look a bit old.

Do you think Microsoft has any reason to no have an uninstall button. Would uninstalling create to much of a problem do you think

Aspie_Chav, that lack of an uninstall button is not Microsofts fault. It has to do with a design problem with firefox.