Why won't Microsoft leave me alone!

[gt40]

They send me an email almost every day --

'Use this patch immediately.' it says.
Get of my friggen back, Bill..



(Ok, maybe it's spam - But it's still their fault!!!)

[LvR]

Not SPAM and not Microsoft .................. but bigtime virus/trojan/worm

[Brian R.]

LvR is right. We have been warned about this attempt at attacking our computers at work. Microsoft will never send you a patch by e-mail.

[Brian Ellis]

Have a neighbour who fell for this and was not secure (he had just bought a new computer the same day and had not had time to install any anti-virus). He opened up Outlook (God forbid! Anyone who uses this, OE or MSIE deserves what he gets!) prior to downloading the AV updates. He saw this message and assumed that it was sent automatically because he knew he was security vulnerable. Wham!

He asked me for help because his new pride and joy had started to misbehave badly. One tricky thing it did was to slow down Internet access after about 30 secs and to stop it altogether after a minute. It was therefore impossible to download any virus detector/corrector. I finally downloaded a system on my own computer that I was able to transfer to his via a CD-R and this told me all about it. We corrected it, downloaded his own antivirus updates and ran a scan, which showed all clear. Took me four hours to sort the blighter out.

These spurious messages seem to originate mainly in Australia and never have a MS "From" address but something that is meant to look like it.

[gt40]

meant to say virus

[gt40]

Explain this too me:
Why is the IT guy where my wife works FORCING her to install OE to be able to get her mail at home???

[Admiral]

He opened up Outlook (God forbid! Anyone who uses this, OE or MSIE deserves what he gets!)

Hey, I still use IE, Opera is blazing fast but crashes on my rig after a while (7.20, 7.21 preview 1, 7.21 p2). You can pick on me about OE, I'm too lazy to search, download and set up another mail client, but I do use a software firewall and antivirus and the ISP for my main e-mail account does scan every mail that passes through their server.

[Brian R.]

Just have to be careful on how you set the defaults for Outlook and what you open. We have been told to not have the Preview Pane active. Not sure why. I guess something could be activated by showing up in the preview pane.

[Brian Ellis]

I never use MSIE, Outlook or Outlook Express. Too bloody stupid. I recommend Netscape 7.02 or its Mozilla parent. No cost, no ads, reliable, browse and e-mail in the one proggy, fast, highly configurable. Of course, it is not perfect, but it's much more secure than the MS offerings.

GT40: Does it matter which e-mail client your wife uses? How can her IT bod tell what she uses and what difference would it make, anyway?

[mutz]

Well... many companies and business people use the whole MS business thing including calender and appointments per e-mail over Outlook, be they at the office, at home or on the road. Can't be a yuppie without being connected 24/7 corporate global, ya know...

[albatorsk]

Originally posted by mutz
many companies and business people use the whole MS business thing including calender and appointments per e-mail over Outlook

Yes, but that's Outlook. Outlook Express doesn't talk to the calendarng and appointment part of the Exchange server, so that shouldn't be the reson behind forcing an employee to install OE.