In its ever growing disregard for what users seem to actually want Microsoft stunned many, even down right frustrated some Firefox users with its .Net Framework 3.5 Service pack 1 update that it pushed in February. This update added the Microsoft .Net Framework assistant 1.0 to Firefox without any mention to or interaction from the user. Annoyances.org informs us that:

This update adds to Firefox one of the most dangerous vulnerabilities present in all versions of Internet Explorer: the ability for websites to easily and quietly install software on your PC.

To make matters worse, as you can see in the image, the uninstall option common in Firefox Add-ons is not available in this “add on.”

Tech Republic has an interesting quote from Brad Adams that explains in its first iteration this was installed at the machine level which meant that it would be available to all users on the system, but not available for uninstall at the user level. Microsoft has reportedly released another “update” that makes this “add-on”  a user level component. As you can probably guess this means that you not only have to rip it out for your user account but also all the other user accounts on the system.

So for those of you brave enough to follow the uninstall instructions at Annoyances.org and actually change the registry to remove this uninvited vulnerability from your Firefox install (it’s not that bad as long as you know how to launch regedit); whats to say this is the end of these types of shenanigans, from Microsoft.  The rub here is that if you read what was changed with the service pack there was no mention of this add-on, Firefox or anything called .Net Framework one click assistant.

If you are like me and have been putting off getting this gaping security hole closed up do not wait any longer, it only takes a minute or two.

This is one move that makes one wonder to what end will Microsoft go before they realize they have simply been outclassed and lost the browser war, post questions in the comments if you have some.