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Microsoft's official "Bing Wallpaper app" does some nasty, malware-like things to Windows (www.techspot.com)
submitted 1 month ago by ForgottenFlux to c/technology
110 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The app automatically installs Bing Visual Search and includes code to decrypt cookies saved in other browsers, Rivera said, and it also brings a "free" geolocation web API to the system.

The developer discovered "many" nasty tricks Microsoft integrated in Bing Wallpapers, which include trying to change the browser's settings and set Edge as the default system browser. If the default browser isn't Edge, the app will open the default browser after some time asking to enable the previously installed Microsoft Bing Search for Chrome extension.

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[โ€“] NocturnalMorning 147 points 1 month ago (55 children)

They are trying so hard to push everybody to linux. The only thing that has kept me using windows is game development tool chains, but even that isn't gonna be enough to keep me on windows much longer.

[โ€“] TechnologyChef 0 points 1 month ago

I left a long time ago while they would entertain my classmates of new features I had been using for 4 years. Everyone thought I was embarrassed when the MS rep told me they had to look at legal consequences before adding features that could be patented by others when I asked why they hadn't added a menu of WiFi access points, yet I sat there wondering how our open source community built so much and took care of each other in collaboration. I understood they had to be careful to not get sued, but they also thrived in that world for competition rather than selling services.

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