Microsof has sought to downplay the recent, but unpublicized, automatic update of system files on Windows XP and Vista machines as "normal behavior."
ZDNet blogger Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has been writing the last two days about a "stealth" update that occurred on his and other machines in late August, even though those machines are set to not install automatic updates. "I just don't like the idea of having updates foisted upon systems without being aware that they are coming in and having the option to postpone them," he wrote.
A Microsoft spokesperson said, "Windows Update automatically updates itself from time to time to ensure that it is running the most current technology, so that it can check for updates and notify customers that new updates are available."
"The point of this explanation is not to suggest that we were as transparent as we could have been; to the contrary, people have told us that we should have been clearer on how Windows Update behaves when it updates itself," said Nate Clinton, Program Manager Windows Update, in a blog today.
Clinton went on to say, "WU does not automatically update itself when Automatic Updates is turned off, this only happens when the customer is using WU to automatically install upgrades or to be notified of updates." That would explain what happened on the machines that Adrian Kingsley-Hughes observed. According to his blog each were set to be notified of any updates.
For the curious, the updated files on Vista are:
- wuapi.dll
- wuapp.exe
- wuauclt.exe
- wuaueng.dll
- wucltux.dll
- wudriver.dll
- wups.dll
- wups2.dll
- wuwebv.dll
- cdm.dll
- wuapi.dll
- wuauclt.exe
- wuaucpl.cpl
- wuaueng.dll
- wucltui.dll
- wups.dll
- wups2.dll
- wuweb.dll
All nine files are system files related to the XP and Vista versions of Windows Update (WU) itself.
This article was originally a blog post on News.com.
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It seems to me that it's just a lot of bashing against Microsoft, a problem came up and all those who hated Microsoft saw an opening to just bash them without questioning them or giving them the ability to speak. Do the same with Apple and everyone's all ears for an explanation, and everyone's ready to forgive, forget and rationalize Apple's decisions - but Microsoft gets put on the guillotine. I'm not defending them, but I hate the fanboyism.
Anyways it seems the problem only comes about when Windows live update is set to either "update automatically" or "don't download but notify me"
Posted by ChooseandWatch Alex on Saturday, September 15 2007 07:55 AM