Viruses: Genetic, Generated, and those sponsored by Microsoft

I've been out with the flu this week. I got sick last Friday, was better on Saturday and worse on Sunday. Weird stuff. Viruses are really different than they used to be.

This got me thinking: Computer viruses have mutated lately as well. Some are now sponsored by Microsoft.

Computer virus creators try and fool you into installing unwanted software that clutters up your computer and eats memory, launching various applications and processes without your consent.

Computer virus creators also change the name of the virus routinely in order to fool anti-virus software.

If you would like to see examples of these behaviors, install or try to uninstall Windows Search—formerly known as Windows Instant Search, Windows Desktop Search, MSN Desktop Search, and Windows Indexing Service Search.

When it was first released, I promoted the tool. It seemed really useful and was less of a memory hog than Google Desktop Search. That eventually changed, and Microsoft Desktop Search started spawning all or sort of processes without my consent—even when I told it to "Snooze Indexing".

Eventually, I decided to limit the number of folders that were indexed. This made the file search not work, as I was always looking for something somewhere that had been indexed yet, and I always ended up reverting back at a grep search anyway.

So, last week I thought I could remove Microsoft Desktop Search from my workstation. Silly me. Viruses can't be removed that easily.

The option was hidden from "Add or Remove Programs" causing me to use an MSI utility to forcefully remove it.

Then, Microsoft tried to trick me into reinstalling it.

In Microsoft Outlook, I would see the following above all grids...

Notice that I already have the option to perform a full text search of all e-mail using the box in the top right-hand corner, but Microsoft wants me to believe that I am missing out on something better by taunting me with the "Click here to enable Instant Search".

Of course, I clicked it. Anyone would.

After that, Microsoft says that an unnamed "Windows component" is missing and asks if you would like to download it.

"Sure", I said.

...And not only did it reinstall Windows Desktop Search, but it installed Microsoft Silverlight as well!