For those of you who are old enough to remember Roseanne Roseannadanna on Saturday Night Live, "My father always used to say, it's always something. If it's not one thing, it's another"

Microsoft is pushing their weight around. We've got Ad-Aware customers contacting us left and right because Microsoft is telling them to uninstall their Ad-Aware software in order to run Windows Live OneCare "security software" (the quotation marks are mine).

One of our loyal users, Fran, gave us permission to reprint the e-mail that she received from Microsoft's support in response to the issue. To read the letter in full, click here.

I assure you, any company that tells you that you must uninstall another program in order to run theirs is doing you a great dis-service! Our product, like many others in our industry, is built to be compatible with other security products in order to provide computer users with 1) the right to choose, and 2) strong security layers against today's threats.

A few excerpts from the Microsoft letter:

"My name is Jenny and I will be working with Bruce to assist you with this issue."

I guess it always takes two MS people to get your issues resolved?

"Fran, I would like to explain that during the last client update, OneCare checks whether any third party conflicting program is installed on the computer. If Ad-Aware is not removed from the computer, OneCare will display a red status."

Ad-Aware is not the conflicting program...OneCare is.

"In order to maintain a stable system environment, other anti-virus and firewall programs installed on the computer must be uninstalled before installing Windows Live OneCare."

Hasn't Microsoft been in trouble for these tactics before?

"As Windows Live OneCare provides computers with full protection from viruses, worms, Internet attack attempts, and various other threats, we highly recommend uninstalling other programs to avoid such program conflicts."

Thank you for that wonderful explanation, but isn't Windows the reason that companies like ours are in business in the first place?

"You can contact us at v-30jeli@mssupport.microsoft.com or v-30bwan@mssupport.microsoft.com"

We have. And we urge all of our Lavasoft customers to do the same!

Bottom line:  You do not need to uninstall Ad-Aware. The conflict is on their side.