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Windows 7 for XP ProfessionalsUpdating Support Skills from XP to Windows 7by Bink.nu's Raymond Comvalius
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Microsoft has begun patching files on Windows XP and Vista without users' knowledge, even when the users have turned off auto-updates. Many companies require testing of patches before they are widely installed, and businesses in this situation are objecting to the stealth patching.Files changed with no notice to users In recent days, Windows Update (WU) started altering files on users' systems without displaying any dialog box to request permission. 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 itself. Microsoft is patching these files silently, even if auto-updates have been disabled on a particular PC.
It's surprising that these files can be changed without the user's knowledge. The Automatic Updates dialog box in the Control Panel can be set to prevent updates from being installed automatically. However, with Microsoft's latest stealth move, updates to the WU executables seem to be installed regardless of the settings — without notifying users.
When users launch Windows Update, Microsoft's online service can check the version of its executables on the PC and update them if necessary. What's unusual is that people are reporting changes in these files although WU wasn't authorized to install anything.
This isn't the first time Microsoft has pushed updates out to users who prefer to test and install their updates manually. Not long ago, another Windows component, svchost.exe, was causing problems with Windows Update, as last reported on June 21 in the Windows Secrets Newsletter. In that case, however, the Windows Update site notified users that updated software had to be installed before the patching process could proceed. This time, such a notice never appears.
For users who elect not to have updates installed automatically, the issue of consent is crucial. Microsoft has apparently decided, however, that it doesn't need permission to patch Windows Updates files, even if you've set your preferences to require it.Full Story At Source
This is a BS claim...
The notifications they talk about are the Automatic Updates scheduled update runs. When you enable AU, every time it runs a check for updates, it downloads any necessary AU/WU/MU client updates automatically so that it can reliably perform the check.
The exact same thing happens when you manually run WU/MU from the web site. There is nothing nefarious or secret about it.
The way this was written you would suspect some kind of government wide conspiracy.
Like GoodThings2Life said, when the update service does a check it updates files it needs, be it AU or WU. The story itself says the files updated are related to WU files and nothing else. Now if they were updating things not related to WU or AU etc, I'd start to worry a bit.
From the Windows Update team:
blogs.technet.com/.../how-windows-update-keeps-itself-up-to-date.aspx
GP007,
Exactly... *IF* this were the case, I'd be very annoyed too. Purely a case of sensationalist journalism and paranoia without doing their homework.
Pls. see IBM's or Lenovo's System Update program. The first thing is inside this program always updating the updater. After this update, the new updater begin working. This is the right way, not a hidden updater update.