Microsoft is a venereal disease. It's "updates" don't fix anything really needing fixing. They fix (as in castrate) YOU.
If you have an old version of their software, legal or not, they are determined to disabuse you of using it. They WILL win, unless you completely block them ... somehow. The smartest thing is to STOP allowing the computer which has your legacy software from having an internet connection. Have a throw away computer for internet. And if that computer is only for browsing the internet, then why in the world would you use a piece of crap like Windoze? Go Linux and free your head (not to mention your self respect).
You don't need much "antivirus" if you eliminate virus #1: Microsoft "updates" and their other "services". You need antivirus at all if you eliminate the internet.
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http://www.theregister.com/2023/02/03/microsoft_old_office_scan/
Microsoft Swears It's Not Coming For Your Data With Scan For Old Office Versions (theregister.com) 37
Posted by msmash on Monday February 06, 2023 @01:40PM from the closer-look dept.
Microsoft wants everyone to know that it isn't looking to invade their privacy while looking through their Windows PCs to find out-of-date versions of Office software. From a report:
In its KB5021751 update last month, Microsoft included a plan to scan Windows systems to smoke out those Office versions that are no longer supported or nearing the end of support. Those include Office 2007 (which saw support end in 2017) and Office 2010 (in 2020) and the 2013 build (this coming April). The company stressed that it would run only one time and would not install anything on the user's Windows system, adding that the file for the update is scanned to ensure it's not infected by malware and is stored on highly secure servers to prevent unauthorized changes to it.
The update caused some discussion among users, at least enough to convince Microsoft to make another pitch that it is respecting user privacy and won't access private data despite scanning their systems. The update collects diagnostic and performance data so that it can determine the use of various versions of Office and how to best support and service them, the software maker wrote in an expanded note this week. The update will silently run once to collect the data and no files are left on the user's systems once the scan is completed.
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