Windows Update: You Can’t Say No
Even if you opt out, Microsoft updates you anyway.
September 25, 2007
By Doug Barney
Most of us allow Windows Update to keep our OSes patched and current. But many individuals prefer to control how their PCs get changed, and disable Windows Automatic Update. And IT often disables automatic updates so they can test patches and reconfigurations before rolling them out.
Little do they (and maybe you) know – Microsoft is updating these machines anyway! That’s right. Microsoft is contacting these PCs, updating files, including executables.
Microsoft cops to the unwelcome updates, explaining that it is only updating Windows Update itself, so that it is always ready to update if and when end users are ready.
Microsoft explains itself pretty fully in this blog posting, and customers let ‘em have it in some 10 pages of comments.
Windows Secrets, which broke the story, shows how you see if your machine was patched without permission.
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