Technology

59641 readers

3649 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

702

Microsoft's official "Bing Wallpaper app" does some nasty, malware-like things to Windows (www.techspot.com)

submitted 3 days ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

105 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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] dantheclamman@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I was actually a fan of Outlook for Android. Followed system dark mode before it was cool, had real multi account inbox, good wearos app, and other useful features. Then they started inserting Bing search into my long press menu system wide. And also recommending Edge when I clicked links. This kind of horizontal integration is just too baked into the company DNA. They can't help themselves, even when it actually harms them

[–] TrueStoryBob@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

Yeah. On my work desktop, our IT people have told us to not use the Outlook program but rather to just go to the website. On my phone, I run it in Vivaldi instead of the app (which is a little jankie, but not as bad as it was running in Chrome or Firefox).

[–] computergeek125@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

What's the difference between horizontal and vertical integration? (I know a few business words but usually not enough to be intelligent, this is a genuine question of confusion)

[–] dantheclamman@lemmy.world 3 points 13 hours ago

Vertical would be if MS owned the carrier, the manufacturer, the operating system etc. Horizontal applies here where they own many interconnecting parts of the same layer of the market. Search, browser, email, etc, all being used to promote each other at the expense of competitors