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Taking liberties

Posted on March 24, 2009 at 23:38:14 by chris

It seems fairly common now for software (on Windows, which I have to use at work) to want to install extra things with it. For example. several things seem to offer to install web browser addons, such as the Yahoo toolbar (and typically select it by default).

I've discovered recently that one of the Windows Updates has installed a Firefox extension without asking me, and without an obvious way of removing it (the "uninstall" button is disabled). Possibly worse, it's adjusted the User-agent string that Firefox sends to websites. I just can't understand how they thought this was an acceptable thing to do.

The best description (including how to remove it) I've found is at http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/ms-dotnet-firefox.html.