I was wondering if they do this will there be a problem with the products that people have already bought and have running on their system. I know many have bought a security product and have it setup and functioning very well on their system. what well be done to work with other better security products already installed

I'm fairly new, a latecomer to computers and the net in general e.t.c., so pardon my ignorance. There seems to a lot of concern about security and privacy, understandably so, but I'm not talking about virii, worms and hackers. Many seem to have serious concerns about Microsoft (and possibly others?) having access to their machines. What kinds of experiences have led these people to become so concerned?

Cheers, Joe;).

I've never seen a legitimate case to suspect Microsoft of maliciously spying on an end-user computer. I suspect that most people are suspicious only because of "big-brother syndrome" or whatever you choose to call it. Many people don't like the thought of MS making ANY change to their computer automatically. However, this is pure paranoia in the case of Automatic updates... clearly if MS has access to their systems for updates, they can do whatever they want.

I'm not saying that I think MS or anyone has a right to snoop around, but then again I have nothing to hide if they did. I don't pirate software, I don't do anything illegal, and so if MS wants to keep track of whether I've installed updates and notify me of other updates automatically, by all means go for it.

I am however opposed to applications vendors who do this activity secretly and maliciously. By this, I mean the spyware/adware vendors whose sole purpose is to create aggravation for others just to make a profit for themselves.

Bottom line, I like being aware of what's being done on my computer. I simply remove the programs whose behavior offends me and stop using software from that vendor if appropriate. A case in point is AOL's Instant Messenger. I refuse to upgrade to 5.5 because of their decision to include WildTangent spyware in their program.

Complainers that complain about anything even when they aren't sure what they are saying.
Microsoft bashers they complain even when a product is free. in other words IDIOTS!

Is THAT where I caught Wild Tangent spyware? Thanks for the information, that explains a lot. I had a beta AIM installed that ran out, so I had to update to 5.5 for the kids to use. I thought maybe they picked it up somewhere while I was away from the computer. I have cleaned Wild Tangent out of my computer, but it was a messy business, and very annoying. Spybot Search & Destroy was unable to clean it alone, even after a special reboot, because it still insisted that the files were "in use."

Not sure if NTBugTraq's resident "sleuth" is the originator of this discovery. Don't be naming any comets after him, just yet.

Yeah, and I wonder how much more spying on your PC they will be able to do with this update??

I don't really care about the spying of my PC.. considering it's not .. VERY NOT likely that Microsoft is going to download your credit card information... and since I own a LEGAL version of windows.. I have really nothing to be afraif of being spied on. However, what I DO worry about this release is that Windows Update 4.0 is UBER slow... I hope it turns out like Internet Explorer... where 5.0 gets faster hehe.

Just becuase I have nothing to hide, that does not make it OK for others (especially large corportations) to spy on me.

What if M$ detects I'm using Winamp (which they can, by checking registry keys) instead of WMP, and bork my sound card drivers? What if they detect I'm using Mozilla and not IE, and bork my network stack?

I have about as much trust in M$'s honest business practices as I do in Enron's honest accounting practices..

Despite people's paranoia I firmly believe that Microsoft is in the business of making money... not maliciously ticking off customers by spying on them or sabbotaging other programs. Afterall, ticking off customers and software vendors leads to more lawsuits than they already deal with, so it's not in their interest to do so on purpose.

You need to get a life! Think what you say before making a fool out of yourself.

Microsoft would have to be complete idiots to do anything like that. They would risk losing billions, and for what?

People have always been paranoid about Microsoft, and a lot of very proficient computer users have checked them out without ever finding anything of the kind.