Does the Paint.net installer phone home?

[dandv]

I've just installed Paint.net 3.5.8 (SHA1 of the setup .EXE = 807551d0b891462612bde4a87e247b817e6eb81f) and my firewall kept notifying me of updates to connect to the Internet. I remember I had deactivated the "check for updates" option. Here are the connection attempts (each occurred so many times that installation took several minutes on a Core i5 with an SSD):

http://whois.domaint...m/208.112.13.16 - SetupFrontend.exe

http://whois.domaint.../91.209.196.169 - mscorsvw.exe

http://whois.domaint.../199.66.201.169 - mscorsvw.exe

http://whois.domaint...205.234.175.175 - mscorsvw.exe

What's the deal with these attempts, and can we get rid of them?

Edited May 21, 2011 by dandv

[Rick Brewster]

There is no spyware in Paint.NET.

Paint.NET itself only connects to the Internet for two reasons. The first is to check for updates. The second is an anonymous ping at the end of installation. This is only done for the purpose of counting the number of successful or failed installs, and no personal information is transmitted. These are both performed on background threads. I would not be offended if you completely blocked Paint.NET and its installer from accessing the Internet.

It may also be possible that various Windows or .NET components will access the Internet. From what I've seen this is only done for Certificate Revocation checks. I digitally sign the Paint.NET installer and Paint.NET's DLL's and EXE, mostly to enable verification that any file has not been tampered with for diagnostic purposes (if a file has been modified, the signature will be invalid, and that is a clear sign of, e.g. a virus). If the local cache for the Certificate Revocation List is old, then it must be redownloaded in order to ensure that any specific digital signature did not use a revoked certificate.

[dandv]

Thanks Rick for clarifying that! I really appreciate it when the developers really listen and

to users.

[Rick Brewster]

You may also find this blog post of mine to be relevant: http://blog.getpaint.net/2010/12/22/photoshop-filters-and-more-silly-business-proposals/