Thank you, Musicat.
The cite jjimm gave does not mention the word “virii” anywhere on the page. I was under the impression that it was correct for the biological entity but I guess it isn’t.
I wouldn’t know how to pronounce it anyway. 
For the record, Hotmail has an automatic virus checking feature. One time a friend sent me an email with an attachment that was labeled as a virus. Had I not known this I would have trusted him. :eek: But it was probably a worm since he wouldn’t send me anything dangerous on purpose.
The virus does not target that feature. Plus, that vulnerability was removed from IE6 which was released months later – two years ago. It was patched and fixed. There should be no reason why anyone should be vulnerable when XP comes with IE6, and Windows Update is set to run automatically by default. No software is bug free/invulnerable to exploits, and of course when MS takes initiatives such as doing automatic windows updating (a feature which can be disabled), they receive shit for that too.
Windows is targetted because it holds such a large marketshare. If the dominant operating system were made by Apple, I am sure there would be just as many viruses afflicting Macintoshes. Furthermore, I am not exactly a fan of Apple’s deceptive marketing practices where they claim superiority over AMD and Intel technology, when it is both slower and more expensive.
The difference between Apple and MS is not that Apple’s engineers are more intelligent, nor that the company cares about its users more. The difference is that MS is more successful and its software is widely-used, and as a result it has to deal with the bashing that is inherent to such a position.