Microsoft's automatic updates system has once again found itself in the limelight following an issue with Windows Desktop Search 3.01 which has slowed thousands of computers and is causing havoc for IT technicians around the world. Despite client computers being configured only to update currently installed software, numerous blogs have reported that the Desktop Search software is installing itself and then hogging resources by loading an indexer, resulting in client computers slowing to a crawl and file servers struggling with the increased load. A Microsoft spokeswoman says the company is looking into reports, but IT administrators won't be too impressed with Windows Update at the moment as this comes just weeks after news that the update services secretly downloads and installs updates even on computers with automatic update disabled.