spyware+microsoft=?

[mrnoodle]

Microsoft makes me want to claw my eyes out. Here's my tale of woe (and it is kind of spyware-related). I have a dial-up internet connection, and MSN is my ISP. Ok that's the first problem, but anyway. MSN 9 has been updated with some ridiculous 30 MB patch that is called "Connection Center" or some such. It has the spyware-finder-thingy in it, as well as some menu stuff. No other value that I can see.

The problem is, I recently deleted my mail.db file because it was somehow interfering with some downloads I was trying to make. Well, when I restarted MSN, it created a new mail.db file, but it was missing my ID tags, etc. No problem, as long as I get connected I can use my mailbox through hotmail (just not through the MSN 9 specific mail client). Fine. However, the new patch requires a pristine mail.db file to hook me up to the internet, and that won't work unless I wipe windows and MSN off my computer and start fresh. I don't want to do that. I want to opt out of the useless patch and keep doing things the way I've been doing them (at least until we get wireless, when I will change ISPs).

The minimum-wage offshore "tech support" people who read their answers from a script say I can't do that, and that my only recourse is to wait for the patch to download, remove the program manually, and then use my computer normally for 4 days until Bill Gates discovers I am patchless and sends (without my permission) another copy of it. This means I'm stuck in a cycle of continually downloading a 30 meg program on a 56k connection, then erasing it so I can get back on the internet the next time. There's no opt-out unless I install an old version of MSN that doesn't trigger the patch update. Of course, installing MSN 7 means that I will constantly be reminded that I don't have MSN 9, which will also slow my "browsing experience".

I'm paying them $25/month for what amounts to spyware that cripples my computer. I guess I could get earthlink or something, but they are even worse, if that's possible. No recourse exists for poor dialup users to simply say "I'm happy with what I have, stop sending me new shit."

When we finally get wireless in my neighborhood, I'm buying Linux, downloading Firefox, and anything that requires ActiveX will simply be avoided.