My current PC is a HP i7 workstation and I’ve tried to keep the software it came with in place. For example, it comes with a 15 month subscription to Norton Internet Security. Even though I have a valid license for Norton 360, I can now save that license for another PC.
The HP PC also came with the MSN toolbar and today it prompted me to install an update. Keeping your software versions up to date is important especially with Microsoft. So I ran the update.
It installed the MSN Toolbar into Internet Explorer and Firefox. I can safely say “I DO NOT WANT” so I figured I would uninstall it in Firefox. No luck there, you can disable it but not uninstall it. To do so you need to remove the toolbar from your PC via the control panel, which I am about to do shortly.
I’m not a fan of toolbars and any extraneous gadgetry I want to see I install via my desktop. The browser is for browsing websites and so far I have not seen a single toolbar that adds any value for me.
GREAT! More MSN spyware, that is what we need. Microsoft has enough hooks in the system already (aka, the OS), all we need now is for them to force us to have their spyware in “other” browsers. Guess this is a way they can fight the EU ruling about IE.
It seems that Microsoft is now installing a lot it “extras” as system-wide additions and not just localized to the application. Their .NET add-on was system-wide. Don’t you just love how they “force” you to have their stuff?
In Firefox, I’ve also disabled the “Windows Presentation Foundation” under the “Plugins” tab in “Add-ons”.