Microsoft force-installs Firefox extension!! !

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Microsoft have sunk to a new low

Various Microsoft automatic updates are now force installing a new extension... to Firefox!

Users are not asked if they want this add-on. There is also no option to un-install it - Microsoft purposely disable the uninstall button! If you want to get rid of it you have to hack the registry and go into Firefox config and also delete some Windows files!

What right have Microsoft got to mess with third party programs in this way? What next - will they meddle with OpenOffice installations without asking and add their own plugins?

*** YOU WILL HAVE MICROSOFT SOFTWARE AND YOU WILL LIKE IT!! ! ***

This is causing a certain amount of outrage amongst the IT community as expected. I run a tight browser with AdBlock Plus and NoScript and Microsoft come along and sneakily update Firefox adding their own add-on for their own click-one technology. Who needs security when Microsoft drives a horse and cart straight through it! Their action is likely illegal in some countries including the UK but do they care? Microsoft are above the law.

Links:


http://www.robertnyman.com/2009/01/26/microsoft-force-installs-firefox-extension/

http://nambulous.wordpress.com/2008/08/23/remove-the-net-framework-assistant-10-from-firefox/

This pretty much proves that the way to riches is not through morality.

Oh gods! Why are people using that sorry excuse of an OS again?

Because it's the most well-known and is seen as the default OS to go for.

I'm buying a Mac ASAP, I've been on Microsoft all my life and it BLOWS.

Tollyman set windows update to ask you first if you want to update. Than look at each one and than install or not. That it installed a plugin bothers me yes. That i could update the framework not as much. Why still use windows ? Games mostly and that linex is still not very user useable.

The Microsoft "malware" affects both Windows XP and Vista. It is simply outrageous that through the normal Windows update that they meddle with third party programs changing their configuration then add their own software to them.

What makes this worse is that they do not even ask people if they want this to happen. Then they deliberately block people from removing the software!! ! Microsoft has no right or business messing with Firefox on my computer, especially in such an underhand way. Microsoft are behaving as bad as vendors of malware and spyware.

Get linux... I'm running linux on all but two of my machines (my gaming machine has xp until Wine gets better, and my laptop has a fully activated copy of xp built into a backup partition)... Linux carries a bit of an advantage over both microsoft and apple... You have the versatility of an apple product, along with the customizability and lower cost of a microsoft machine (even lower than microsoft because you don't have to buy the OS)... The only downside is the steeper learning curve...

Apple is doing it too, do not forget...
the s**t they install via their updater is atrocious

I like Microsoft as much as the next guy (which is zero) but the fact remains that I play games too much for a Mac and don't have the 1337 skills to operate Linux. But I agree this is totally mindfu*ked.

I guess you should of checked the updates before you installed them.

edit: Can anyone tell me what 1337 is supposed to mean? Is it some new text-ebonics?

1337 is leet which altered once again is elite.

I just what to know one thing, what the hell are they even putting in it? are they going to make it so the y take me to a "Come back to IE" webpage D:

General definiton of 1337 is computer skills. Usually used to refer to specifig gaming and/or computer hacking knowledge and techniques, but can be used as a term for describing one's overal computer literacy as well.

and this folks, ends my relationship with computer games, unless wine drastically improves.

try winex or cedega. Cedega is supposed to be pretty good. Here's a list of games that have been tested with cedega and the results. http://www.cedega.com/gamesdb/

Did any of you guys read the Windows EULA when you installed it? What does it say about this type of thing?

Chalk up yet another reason why Linux>>Windows.

Have you guys actually read what this does? I'm not condoning installing software without notification - but I think you're all blowing this out of proportion.

1) The guy installed Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1. This is not something a standard user installs. This is a development suite installed by people that want to develop MS software. How many of you guys actually have this software installed? How many have the extension installed.

2) The extension allows Firefox to launch ClickOne apps. Apparently Firefox can not do this without the extension. ClickOne apps are built using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. The extension allows developers to test their apps in Firefox as well as IE.

3) Apparently Firefox does not support different extensions per user, so MS made the extension uninstallable (via the UI) so that a different user wouldn't remove the extension - which would break the development environment. The extension _can_be_disabled_ via the UI.

4) Other software vendors (Adobe, Google, Sun, Apple, Nokia, and Skype according to one poster) use the same mechanism to install their extensions in the same fashion.


So again, I agree that it probably would have been better to include it as an option during the VS SP1 setup and allow it to be installed via the Control Panel, but I don't see it as a big deal. I see this thread as more of a "lets bash MS" for following the current industry for installing FF extensions than anything else. Waaah waaah.