>At least with the UT we understand WHY.

I agree here - I just mentioned it, since it might be a possible cause (that is, check for new content on the Web page).

>This MSDN activity has no apparent sensible reason unless it is to condition us for something in the future.
>
>To me this is the kind of thing that should be prohibited from just happening - they ought to EXPLAIN the behaviour and why it is needed and provide some way to decline permission to do it.
>
>I have the feeling that soon BillG will be coming through my CRT and having a beer with me.

Well, you never know what they do with your private information.

There is a very interesting report on spyware at http://grc.com/downloaders.htm. I don't know whether it is relevant here, but your concerns reminded me of this article.

You may just want to investigate the IP packets that go out of your computer. If you search at www.download.com for "sniffer", you get several apparently relevant hits, even after filtering on "freeware only".