Microsoft forces IM upgrades

Microsoft on Friday forced its millions of MSN Messenger users to download a new version of the software to plug a vulnerability discovered earlier this week. The mandatory upgrade began early Friday morning after a security company posted a how-to guide describing how the vulnerability can attack computers. MSN Messenger users were then greeted with a notice to upgrade before they could open their instant messaging clients.

The moves come after Microsoft on Tuesday released a series of software patches to plug a series of "critical" weaknesses in a handful of products including Office XP, Internet Explorer 6, Windows Media Player and MSN Messenger. Microsoft was planning on asking Messenger users to upgrade over a longer period of time, but once the security posting went public the company decided to upgrade all users at once, a company representative said.

[Prndll]

We are beginning to see it.....

MS is starting to demand complete unilateral control.

That is what I said...

This is what I said when Windows XP came out with activation. It is the perfect tool to force people to upgrade. The difference between that and this IM forced upgrade is that it won't be free. But, you can bet your butt that it is coming and Microsoft will be the first to do it so they can clear the legal hurdles for other companies like Adobe and Macromedia.

Microsoft is the only with deep enough pockets to fight this in court and as we saw with the Anti-trust case they will come out of it smelling like roses and the consumers will once again get the shaft.

Robert

[Al Johnsons]

complete unilateral control

http://www.analogstereo.com/volvo_242_244_245_owners_manual.htm

security or trojan horse?

I got this update and in the process Microsoft set all of my default browser pages to MSN and installed an MSN toolbar. Is this the security failure - I wasn't using MSN enough?!