"Silicon neuron" wrote in message ...
http://windowssecrets.com/comp/070913/#story1

By Scott Dunn

Microsoft has begun patching files on Windows XP and Vista without users' knowledge, even when the users have turned off
auto-updates.


I'm sorry that I don't have time to read this whole thread,
so I hope that these two questions haven't been asked
in it before.

Whenever I get Windows updates, Microsoft turns on
their auto-updates thingy. And I always have to remind
myself to turn it off.

So if someone wasn't aware of this, then they could
easily get the impression, on the next update-tuesday,
that Microsoft was patching files even though he
(thought he) had turned off auto-updates,
- being unaware that it had been silently turned on.

(That's a question, phrased as the answer;
But I don't suppose that is the issue here.)

In any case, there is a difference between Windows update,
and the update service.

I keep the whole service disabled (for a couple of reasons)
and enable it by script only when I feel like getting Windows
updates (--because Microsoft wont give updates
unless that service is running.)
Then I turn that service off, again, too.

If Microsoft is actually going around all services,
then that is very bad thing indeed. It would make it
indistinguishable from maleware. A root-kit, or something.
And there are laws against that kind of thing.
Just because MS happen to be a particular kind
of software, an OS, should not make any difference
in this. Or that's what I think anyway.

~greg