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Microsoft offers patch to Mozilla users

Still pretty complicated
Thursday, 4 June 2009, 10:42

MICROSOFT HAS ISSUED a patch to remove the Firefox add-in which it installed on the rival browser without asking users for permission.

The Firebadger plug-in for Microsoft's .Net was installed as part of an earlier update of the Vole's Windows operating system.

The latest update patches Windows systems so that the Firefox add-on previously installed by Microsoft can be successfully uninstalled without the user having to manually edit the Windows registry. Even so, the uninstall is still more than just a little bit complicated to get done.

According to the Microsoft advisory, the update must be applied while the extension is enabled in Firefox. You have to uninstall the update, re-enable the extension, and reinstall the update.

After you've downloaded and installed the update, if you check Add-ons from the Firefox menu, it will change the .Net Framework Assistant add-on to version 0.0.0 (from 1.0), and then you are prompted to restart the browser.

When you have restarted Firefox the add-on will have been reinstalled so that the uninstall tab is no longer grayed out. You still have to click the uninstall tab again and "yes" to the "are you sure" prompt, and then restart Firefox yet again.

Did we mention that this all has to be done when the moon is full in Leo while standing on a tortoise with one foot and juggling a fruitbat? µ

 

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Comments
What exactly does this "Patch" do again??

Besides the fact that Microsoft, decided that this Patch was good for me. Might One ask what exactly what this um Patch does?

I care little for such practices myself, but, unless there's a better reason then pure M$ Hate, I'd like to know about that.

If there's such a thing as an advantage to useing this "Patch" I'd like to know more about that as well...

posted by : Anonymous, 04 June 2009 Complain about this comment
P.s.

Where does One find said update?
The Author must have forgotten to mention that part of the story... :(

posted by : Anonymous, 04 June 2009 Complain about this comment
Are you blind?

Dude, try actually reading the article, before making the stupid idiotic assumption that the Inquirer is simply bashing Microsoft.

Or are you such a blinded Microsoft fanboy that you allow yourself to be blinkered when reading anything that involves Micsosoft.

Oh and if you had one ounce of common sense, you could probably find the link to where the problem was described in greater detail underneath the article.

But no, you obviously have nothing better to do, than to troll and think that every single article regarding Microsoft must be nothing more than just senseless MS bashing.

posted by : Get glasses, 04 June 2009 Complain about this comment
a fruitbat?

a fruitbat? kunt, someone told me just a normal bat would do, now ill have to go out and find a fruitbat and start the procedure all over again

posted by : rangers, 04 June 2009 Complain about this comment
Am I blind??

Gee I must be...

One would have thought a link to a M$ KB Page w/the Patch would have been in order.

Instead we get a tirade of how much M$ suck and how much of a troll I'am because I asked for a direct Link (In the Article), for the "Patch" in question.

But, hay Trolls, trolling Trolls right Troll??

posted by : Anonymous, 04 June 2009 Complain about this comment
Supreme Commander

I too, would like to know what this plug-in does. I'm a .net programmer, but all I can find on the web is folks complaining about not being able to uninstall. Don't get me wrong - MS is totally lame for forcing this plug on us, but if it does something useful, I might just keep it. At least that would save me the cost of one fruit-bat.

posted by : Cost of a Fruitbat, 04 June 2009 Complain about this comment
Firebadger My Ass

What the hell are you talking about? What update? When? What is Firebadger? How can one tell if it has been installed? Where is the link to the patch?
What registry entry? What does Firebadger do?
Your article is about as informative as a fart in a lift.

posted by : Jerry, 04 June 2009 Complain about this comment
Here“s more info

http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/archive/2009/02/27/uninstalling-the-clickonce-support-for-firefox.aspx

posted by : Fernando, 04 June 2009 Complain about this comment
Holy sh!t!

The 'add-on' enables ClickOnce which from what I read is the security hole successor of ActiveX controls (something that allows to install a program without admin privileges with one click!). If you install .NET 3.5 SP1 you get the addon weather you like it or not.

Gee, great policy MS, if your offering is bad, why not make the competition as bad as you.

posted by : anon1mat0, 04 June 2009 Complain about this comment
@anon1mat0

ClickOnce requires user input to actually install anything on your machine r-tard. It installs things on your machine - yes - inside of a sandbox - so that it is CONTAINED and given lower security privileges to boot. This plug-in is a good thing and the only reason I see you wanting to disable it is to stop people from being able to add additional functionality to their machines.

Maybe do some research next time? I must say, the level of effort put into this article - both in the comments and the article itself (excluding people who request such outlandish things such as a KB article) are really poor.

Good job Nick. I applaud you for your lack of effort on this one. I think I'll go switch over to a Charlie article where I know i'm going to get pissed off fanbois, trolls, and some genuine EFFORT to construct an article.

posted by : max Weber, 04 June 2009 Complain about this comment
Install something in my sandbox?

So tell us all again Max why in this world of server side applications, where people can run entire office suites without leaving their browser, tell us why someone would need to install something on my computer?

The entire internet seemed to work before the .NET plugin was installed, and it will continue to work after it is removed.

posted by : Chris, 04 June 2009 Complain about this comment
Why so serious?

I just uninstalled the Microsoft .NET plugin from my Firefox simply by clicking on the uninstall button, which was active. The plugin version number was 1.1, not 1.0 or 0.0 and I had no need to install any patch.

Am I a genius or is everyone else a dumbass?

:P

posted by : stevieboy, 04 June 2009 Complain about this comment
Cheeky little bastards

I've been wondering about this add-on (didn't have the wherewithal to connect it to .net install). I had it disabled but now it's gooooone. Thanks.

posted by : egil, 04 June 2009 Complain about this comment
@stevieboy

You running Firefox 3.5 beta 4 by any chance?

I am and it uninstalled just fine without all this patching malarkey.

posted by : Gilbo, 04 June 2009 Complain about this comment
you might want it

if you want to run .net apps in firefox. .net is actually a really cool technology. It is sandboxed etc, it's not the same thing as activex, and these apps could run on linux and macos as well, and firefox etc.

Online google office is no match for the the real thing...., just like javascript animations aren't as good as flash etc.

But if you just view web pages than it's not any use to you.

posted by : Andrew, 04 June 2009 Complain about this comment
@Get Glasses

Hard day at work for someone or what, eh?

Never knew asking for a link was calling an article a bash.

I can't actually work out what got you started in the first place.

posted by : Daniel, 04 June 2009 Complain about this comment
A sandbox you say

Why didn't you say so before, that makes it all sound so much more fun.

I was really pissed when this 'patch' turned up uninvited a few months ago and then wouldn't uninstall. WTF MS, how rude is that! What kind of usability genius disables the uninstall button anyway?

I managed to uninstall via registry tinkering but this new 'uninstall' process looks even more complex.

If I really wanted a patch that is one dodgy JavaScript + .net click away from running whatever else I don't need on my system then I would just uninstall my firewall and anti virus. At least let me download the patch myself and give me the option to uninstall it if I don't like it any more like any other vendor.

posted by : bdg, 05 June 2009 Complain about this comment
SNEAKY as .........

Microsoft should ASK us BEFORE installing unwanted/wanted apps on our systems.

I don't recall EVER using .net apps online ! ever

Used silverlight ONCE. (waste of time installing it)

thoughtless microsoft at it again....

_______________________________________

OH...... Whats your .net passport ? LoL
O

posted by : z, 05 June 2009 Complain about this comment
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