A little over a week ago, while searching for a file on a Windows-XP machine, I was surprised to see the Search Assistant attempting to activate my Internet connection, Thomas Greene writes . It puzzled me because I wasn't searching the Internet, only my local drive. I was busy with other things at the time, but I made a mental note to look into it soon, which I promptly forgot to do.

This morning, Reg reader Jody Melbourne rattled my cage, fresh from having made the same discovery. He'd noticed that the Assistant was establishing a connection with a machine at Microsoft.

"I did not give Microsoft permission to know what files I am searching for on my local hard-drive," Jody wrote.

So how trustworthy do you want Trustworthy Computing to be - More at El Reg USA