[zeugma]

The MS spyware calls home every boot. What happens if you configure your external firewall to stop the connection from happening?

Excellent question Sauron. I don't have XP here, but my firewall definitely has the ability to blackhole sites, or entire networks.

Would anyone here care to try it? 

[zeugma]

Yeah, I'm talking to myself.

I'm going to scrounge up a copy of XP-Pro at work and see how the install of this particular MS-Spyware does here in a VMWare session when it has regular internet access, but no access to any of the microsoft netblocks.

I could also fire up a copy of tcpdump to monitor what it tries to do.