This morning I booted up my PC (Windows XP) to find a messagebox on my desktop, telling me that a newer version of Flash is available.

There are two things I don't want on my PC - one is Flash; the other is anything made by Norton. I've lost count of the number of times I've uninstalled Flash from my system - but each time I uninstall it I can guarantee that within days (sometimes within minutes) it will silently and sneakily re-install itself.

It infuriates me that there's a company out there which thinks it has a god given right to install its products onto my PC - no matter how many times I say that I don't want them.

Back when Flash was owned by Macromedia, someone advised me to add a line to my "hosts" file which had the effect of stopping anything being downloaded from Macromedia's web site. However, since Flash was take over by Adobe, this no longer seems to work.

As far as I'm concerned, Flash is nothing more than a virus. I don't care how many people think it's the bees knees. I just don't want it - period. Does anyone know of a way to stop this dam* software from persistently installing itself without my knowledge or consent.