Microsoft Explains Mystery Firefox Extension

Ricky writes with a followup to news we discussed a couple days ago that a Microsoft toolbar update was installing an IE add-on and a Firefox extension without the user's consent. Quoting Ars: "Microsoft has fixed the distribution scope of a toolbar update that, without the user's knowledge, installed an add-on in Internet Explorer and an extension in Firefox called Search Helper Extension. Microsoft told us that the new update is actually the same as the old one; the only difference is the distribution settings. In other words, the update will no longer be distributed to toolbars that it shouldn't be added to. End users won't see the tweak, Microsoft told Ars, and also offered an explanation on what the mystery add-on actually does. 'The Search Enhancement Pack is a shared component used by the Windows Live Toolbar, MSN Toolbar, and Bing Bar. This component enables toolbar search functionality, like the toolbar search suggestions drop down. It is not the toolbar. It is a component used by the toolbars.'"

Comments

Bogus!

[woboyle]

What cruft! The number one reason why I am boycotting Microsoft and Apple is that they seem to think that they own my computing and communication devices and can install anything they want on them without my explicit permission. To heck with that! When are these pinheads going to get with the program, that doing so compromises the integrity and security of our systems and personal or proprietary information. I can accept auto-updates of already installed components, provided I opt-in to that, but if they are going to install ANY new components for whatever reason, I want to know what and why as well as what the possible side-effects of it may be to the operation and integrity of my system.

So, I have totally migrated to Linux on my workstations, laptops, and mobile devices. I run Windows XP SP2 in a virtual machine solely to run one stock/options trading application that isn't available for Linux and incapable of running with Wine. I don't update it except infrequently, and then only manually. In any event, there could conceivably be made a case that Microsoft has violated any number of laws related to installation or operation of unauthorized software on a system that you do not own (hacking). That is a criminal offense, and should be treated as such. Fines should be levied and penalties should apply... That's how angry I am about this sort of behavior.