Microsoft sneaks Firefox add-on into Patch Tuesday update Microsoft has silently slipped a Firefox extension onto user machines via an automatic software update. Again. This week, as part of its regular Patch Tuesday, Redmond released an update for its various browser toolbars, and as Ars Technica noticed, this update also installed an entire add-on for Internet Explorer and an …
That's what I'm running now.
I just reinstalled an old hard drive and updated it to SP3 and got all the third partyware to run Java adobe the usual suspects, a free firewall nad a free AV.
A huge supply of non Microsoft freeware all needed to surf today's web. And all working quite well too. And it only takes over 8 gigabyrtes.
I'd like to see a Linux distro that can do that. Why, the last OS I was using (DreamLinux) was only a few bytes. Another I had was 30 megabytes. Crapware. You need a muscle car, you get a Yanky one.
Two gears and half a ton of engine. It will go anywhere that has long straight roads.
Got Ubuntu 10.04 64-Bit installed, comes with Firefox, OpenOffice 3.2, Thunderbird, Java, Video/Audio codecs for media playback, a reasonably good (for my needs) video editing package, a music player and a whole load of other stuff. Total install size?
4.7GB!
I could probably trim that down a bit if I wanted but I can't be bothered.
Rob
Some time ago, Microsoft wouldn't have batted an eyelid.
Now, they are apologising and changing their behaviour.
This reads, to me, as if Microsoft has just woken up and realised that it isn't the invulnerable behemoth that it once thought it was.
Interesting. Very interesting.
Windows requires too much installed out of the box to make it usable!?! Are you a troll or dumbass, last ten times I've done Windows installs I've not had to spend a good half on audio/video codecs ALONE!
That's the trade-off, out of the box Windows will do more, more easily but not without hideous amounts of bloat and security holes, Linux is the kit-car OS, almost bugger all works out of the box but it's bloat-free and you tailor it to your exact needs.
The only caveat being the most recent Ubuntu releases which can now do an awful lot out of the box but they took their time about it.
Each time these bugs are released I am sure they still use some sort of monitoring tool to now say
"BING TOOL BAR IS NO MORE THAN EVER FAMOUS ACROSS ALL BROWSERS"
I bet they did that as an accidently lets boost our bottom line install base percentage.. but hey lets call it a mistake because we do not like the numbers we see how few people use our toolbar!
Lets make more of these mistake so our toolbar is used more often YEAH!!!!!
/face palm.
Fire the guy at ms if that is their intention to have an intentional mistake.
cause you people keep having them
disclaimer: WinXP here .. never had a malware problem .. but started at SP2 and wish there was a way I could still be running Win98SE .. which I never had a problem with either .. last time
I had a problem with Windows was Win95 , because I did NOT take the advice NOT to install IE 4.00 .. I was a n00b .. what can I say ?
don't care what M$ does with my IE8 .. use FireFox .. use Open Office .. keep your Windows OS clean by avoiding other MS BULL
Why the fuck would someone have Bing toolbar on FF ? .. I had no plug-in added to FF by patch Tuesday's update
What bugs me is shit like every Adobe Flash update wanting to install Yahoo Search toolbar .. though IT'S NO BIG DEAL TO UNCHECK THE BOX !
Frankly, I found the more you resist and try to screw with Windows, the more it screws with you
Get a wireless router (firewall).. have decent anti-virus ( free AVG here ) .. keep shit updated ..
don't click on email attachments or links if you don't know how to check them out first
a few more simple, common sense rules and Windows is pretty damn safe .. just pay a TINY bit of attention ..
Instead, it seems some people would rather have the BULL inserted and have COWS about it
If you whiners operated your autos like you apparently operate your WinBoxen .. you'd be dead!
"disclaimer: WinXP here .. never had a malware problem .. but started at SP2 and wish there was a way I could still be running Win98SE .. which I never had a problem with either .. last time"
Actually, I still have my copy of W98SE knocking around on a lappy that makes the occasional bit of uptime. The question must surely be whether it was really worth all the extra effort of upgrading when the machine was the only one I used. Of course, that's no longer the case...
"I had a problem with Windows was Win95 , because I did NOT take the advice NOT to install IE 4.00 .. I was a n00b .. what can I say ?"
We all have to learn sometime.
"don't care what M$ does with my IE8 .. use FireFox .. use Open Office .. keep your Windows OS clean by avoiding other MS BULL"
Must admit, I had a bit of a giggle when that whole business of "select your own browser" came through. Yes, I'm using W7 here alongside my openSUSE system (as I repeatedly tell folk, Linux Is Not Ubuntu) and it had Firefox on it from the start. My works PC, however, requires a certain amount of control at the admin end of things, and FF isn't quite as controllable as IE from the policy end. At home, however, who gives a stuff about group policy?
"Why the fuck would someone have Bing toolbar on FF ? .. I had no plug-in added to FF by patch Tuesday's update"
Got to admit, seeing as how all the various Firefoxen I've used have had a built in search facility in them, I've viewed such helper objects as advertising tools and avoided them. Not that I ever saw the point to them in IE either.
"What bugs me is shit like every Adobe Flash update wanting to install Yahoo Search toolbar .. though IT'S NO BIG DEAL TO UNCHECK THE BOX !"
Yeah. Bugs me too. I suppose these folk need to make their pile somehow though, but I'm more likely to block ads than install them.
"Frankly, I found the more you resist and try to screw with Windows, the more it screws with you"
That all depends on if you know what you are screwing with. If you blindly screw with it, I'd agree, but wouldn't that really be your own fault?
"Get a wireless router (firewall).. have decent anti-virus ( free AVG here ) .. keep shit updated ..
don't click on email attachments or links if you don't know how to check them out first
a few more simple, common sense rules and Windows is pretty damn safe .. just pay a TINY bit of attention .."
Sound advice. I've often come across those that don't bother, then wonder why their boxen are doing weird stuff and running like the proverbial dog. Not sure about AVG but there are worse AVs about and it's better than nothing (I've been a Kaspersky user for the last few years but was AVG before that, and my W98 box uses Avast).
"Instead, it seems some people would rather have the BULL inserted and have COWS about it"
It all comes back to labels. Some people like to have all the right badges even if it means that they will have trouble with them. It's one reason why I say what I say about Umbongo in that while I have nothing against it promoting Linux, I wouldn't want it to end up as another badge like Red Hat was some years ago. Or, indeed, Microsoft or Apple.
"If you whiners operated your autos like you apparently operate your WinBoxen .. you'd be dead!"
Sad to say, some people do! ;)
Well there you go, MS screwed up again we shall gloss over the significantly larger user base,larger hardware and software base and just jump to the point that they are an evil empire built on the largest proportion of the world computer sales intent on making our lives crap.
Im actually tired of people moaning about this so im going to say something.
If you wanna moan about MS without being objectionable because linux is so much better then save yourself the stress and f**k off and leave us MS users to live our lives in Hell
if your kicking up a big i hate MS, i love Linux fuss and you are actually using MS software then go away, there will be a reason you are using it and thats probably a similar reason the rest of us use it too.
If your not using MS stuff and your world is all the better for it then good for you, but please stop going around saying how wonderful your life is and how bad everyone elses must be, you wouldnt do it to strangers in the street so dont do it here
the artical is about MS slipping an MS FF update in with a windows update yes, well yes thats very naughty, they were wrong i think we can all agree now lets leave it at that and cut out this MS / linux fanboyism
I have allowed 2 systems to update will all MS Updates (one XPsp3 and one Win7) they both have FF3.6 and neither has any MS add on pish. So what is the actual sotry here? I remember the first (involuntary) install of the .Net one-click muck but once it was removed, it was gone forever.
And speaking of things which be missing; El Reg, after losing your "Science" icon a while back, "Happy" appears to have gone AWOL now too.
...I use peer guardian, will all MickeySoft IPs blocked.
ZoneAlarm is useful too, "MickeySoft Windoze installer is trying to access the internet"
Why? I didn't install anything, I must get on to ZoneLabs and recommend that in addition to the usual options of “Allow” and “Deny” for the allow access to the internet dialog, that they add a third option “Fuck Off Cretin”
I use M$ because:
Word is a good wordprocessor;
Excel is a good spreadsheet;
Windows games - they rock.
I have AVG (free) & Online Armor (free).
Never had a virus, trojan, worm or root-kit.
Not entirely true: had virus 'Brain' back in the MS-Dos days.
M$ works, looks good & allows me to run what I want.
Only the first can be said of Linux.
Paris, because she .... out-ticks Linux.
They did this to increase usage/awareness of Bing.
They disabled the uninstall to keep as many of the extensions active as long as possible, they know most users won't have a clue how to undo this.
They didn't ask you because it is easier to seek your forgiveness than your permission.
They do "stupid stuff" like this because in the long-run it is good for them.
But I'm double checking when I get home tonight. Live and MSN never touch my Firefox. That's why I have multiple browsers on my home system. Firefox for most of my browsing, IE because its there by default and for MS apps, and Opera for browsing the pr0n I've downloaded to my PC.
Microsoft made ground-breaking progress in many ways, though most of them were not first-introduced by Microsoft. (One way that does stand out is that computing hardware lacks any product safety what-so-ever. As long as it doesn't cause physiologic shock, losing your entire estate to organized crime is OK.)
You can't legislate morality.
After reading (Darknet) that Microsoft addressed the "bug" I finally went and installed Firefox on my machines that run Windows. Today. Seems the "bug" isn't fixed yet. There is something the original Register report failed to mention. Firefox typically notifies the user to reboot when running the add-on requires reboot. Not so, with these four (4) add-ons. As reported though, none of these four add-ons (per installation) has a "Remove" option. Now I get to find out how good the current versions of XP and 7 are, at rolling-back. Amazing, considering I dind't even download Firefox until just prior to installing it. Oddly, the really good crimeware/malware works the same way. You don't even know it exists until it spots what it wants to see (say, a subnet you are on, or a connection).
I don't see anyone complaining that their Google Toolbar running in Firefox has been updated silently by the Google Updater.
I think it's great the way Google Updater silently updates all Google its products in the background and doesn't even require a reboot every time. Adobe and Microsoft take note! The only reason I know Chrome has been updated is because Secunia PSI tells me.
I just wish the lot of them would get together and make one Über 'Windows' update that did the lot for every product that registers wih the update service.
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