Thursday, September 13th 2007
Microsoft Auto-Updates Components of Windows Without User Permission
The average Windows XP or Vista user has Windows Update turned on, so that they will ideally be more secure. However, quite a few businesses elect not to have automatic updates, as the version that they are running is stable, and moving to a new version might cause instability in a mission critical environment. Lately, however, Microsoft has been thinking that they know better than their users. Regardless of whether or not a user has automatic updates turned off, Windows XP and Vista automatically update roughly nine files in Windows Update. While it is not a big deal for people that don't mind having the most up-to-date version of Windows, this is a very large breach of security, privacy, and possible stability for anyone who elected to turn Windows Update off.
Source:
Windows Secrets
68 Comments on Microsoft Auto-Updates Components of Windows Without User Permission
Everyone wanting to ditch Windows please step this way: www.ubuntu.com
PS> I looked into it further: "The only files that have been reportedly altered to date are nine small executables on XP and nine on Vista that are used by WU [Windows Update] itself".
I have a feeling this topic won't get many posts as there's not much Linux and Mac fan***s can flame about anymore. And I doubt that the businesses who disable auto-updates, would rely on a particular version of Windows Update for stable Spreadsheed and Databases.
The article lists them all. No big deal.
I run auto-update anyway, so BRING ON THE NEW UPDATES !!!
I have yet to experience any problems from MS updates on my XP network.
rofl
That aside, I find this entire thing disgusting. Microsoft has already done enough to dissuade the public from trusting them, when their trust used to be implicit. The disable option is there for a reason, and Microsoft violated the trust associated with that reason. If anything good comes from this, I hope more people view Linux as a viable option. I've been testing the Linux waters for some time now, and plan to take the plunge real soon. This is just another reason to justify the effort.
Please, for the love of all things good and holy, click this farking link (www.freerepublic.com) -- it will take you to a place with many people just like you.
What are you waiting for? GO!
If anyone's wondering what I'm talking about, check out this guy's behaviour in this thread -- I don't know what's the deal with him. Any ideas?
I had the pleasure of working with a team for 6 weeks while i was off work, and it's one hell of a job, and any file that changes can cause problems, it may not, but you then have to test to make sure.