This is one of those stories that just makes you want to shake your head. Microsoft has decided to offer a patch to undo its sneaky attempt to bring .Net to all Firefox users. Microsoft has been silently installing a “Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant” add-on for Firefox tucked into a routine Windows update, reports the Washington Post.
Ok, not nice, but what was worse was that removing the unwanted, unasked for and distinctly Microsoft-centric add-on was said to be next to impossible, unless you manually edited the registry (not something the average IT department wants its users doing.) After fielding numerous cries of protest, Microsoft has released a patch that will more easily uninstall the add-on … however it’s still not a completely straightforward uninstall, as the add-on must be turned on before running the patch.
The patch is available here. Detailed instructions for applying it are available here.
Lots can be said about the nerve of Redmond to use its position of dominance in Windows to add .Net to a third-party browser. But this is Redmond, slapped repeatedly for antitrust violations, so it’s all been said before.
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