Unwelcome Software

In the past week I found myself extracting software from my computers that I had neither explicitly installed nor would I have if I knew what they were. The source of one of them was a surprise - Google - while the other was less of a surprise - Microsoft.

Having come from the software side of the technology business, and having done a bit of inappropriate hacking in the distant past, I am very suspicious of software surprises. I occasionally look around for misbehaving processes when anything about performance seems odd, or just because I get suspicious for no discernable reason. It would be fair to say that my behaviour is not typical of computer users, which these days includes nearly everybody.

Let's start with Google. Little did I suspect when I installed their beta Chrome browser (just to try it out) that it included a persistent process that is always running: GoogleUpdate.exe. As I read up on what it was I became uncomfortable despite not being particularly ill-disposed toward Google. It can be removed with a bit of rooting around and Chrome doesn't complain about its absence. Apparently this is not always true. The same Wired article I linked to provides a few reasons for us to be uncomfortable. Many people would think my reaction to this software verges on paranoia, however I will not tolerate uninvited software on my computers, especially when I do not have control over it.

The other case is that of Microsoft. A recent automatic update on a Vista machine installed a .NET 3.5 WPF extension into Firefox. That one caught me by surprise. I found it when Firefox next started and warned me. I then made a mistake that perhaps most people would make: I failed to select the uninstall option. In that moment of uncertainty I decided to go with the flow and check it out later. Big mistake. That Microsoft extension actually disables the ability to uninstall the extension. That is deliberately evil, and I don't care whether or not the software itself is harmless; it's as if someone just barged into my home and then chained and padlocked themselves to a support beam. All because I innocently opened the door to someone I thought I knew when the door bell rang.

Despite this nasty attribute of disabling uninstall, that bit of software is now gone as well. That took a little bit longer to achieve than the Google updater. It's good that I'm pretty fearless when it comes to getting my hands dirty under the hood of the operating system since this is not a job for the queasy or non-confident, although I consider it straight-forward.

My recommendation is to not trust software that shows up uninvited, nor the company responsible for it. Shoot first and ask questions later. Too much of my professional and personal life is dependent on reliable and trustworthy software. Have a look on your computer and see what there is to see. You, too, may be in for a surprise.

You'll notice I have not provided instructions (or links) to deal with the unwelcome software I described. If you are interested in pursuing this it is easy enough to find all you need to know with a simple internet search. Should you wish to get rid of this stuff, even if only because you are a paranoid like me, but you are not certain of your ability to do so, find someone to help. Done right it only takes a few minutes. Do it wrong and, well, be sure you have some backups made in case of disaster.