I am indebted to the excellent Windows Secrets website for news of an alarming development last August involving Windows XP and Vista silently installing executable files, even though users had disabled automatic updates. So fare nine files have been identified, there may be more, and whilst the files appear to be benign it does raise the very serious question about Microsoft loading programs on PCs without users knowledge or permission.

The file downloads occur when users select the ‘Let me choose when to install or notify me but don’t automatically download or install’ option in Security Centre. The revelation appears to have embarrassed Microsoft into issuing an explanation and guarded apology, which basically says that whilst deselecting Automatic Updates does indeed stop any new updates, it doesn’t stop Windows Update updating itself. (more…)

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