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Windows Update automatically changing user settings - again


section: windows, for your questions: KezNews forum, 12.10.2007

After Patch Tuesday this week (October 9), some Windows Vista users noticed something strange: Windows Update had changed their Automatic Update settings and rebooted their machines automatically without their consent.




The new report comes on the heels of recent complaints regarding Windows Update performing stealth updates on users’ machines who had turned off Automatic Updates. (Microsoft officials subsequently explained that glitch by saying that Windows Update requires self-updating before it is able to recognize that new updates are available. Microsoft promised to be clearer, in the future, in communicating this requirement.)

The AeroXperience Web site reported a new Windows Update problem on October 10, and was told by Microsoft that the company was aware of the issue and were digging into what happened and why.

It’s hard to say how many users have been affected by this week’s Windows Update problem. The patch-setting override seems to not have affected users running the beta of Vista Service Pack (SP) 1, though that is not 100 percent verified, AeroXP members said. It’s also not clear whether any Windows XP users were affected and/or whether Vista users who obtain their patches via Windows Software Update Services (WSUS) were hit with the same problem.

AeroXP member Rafael Rivera explained the malfunction this way:

“Woke up this morning to a Windows log in screen? Swear you set that option ‘Download updates but let me choose whether to install them’? We did too.

“In what appears to be a major glitch at Microsoft, Windows users are trickling in from across the globe reporting that their machines downloaded and installed updates they did not consent to. Rubbing salt in the wound, machines were also automatically and forcefully rebooted at the default 3am time frame.”

AeroXP quotes a Microsoft spokesperson who said the company currently is investigating the issue “regarding machines that are re-starting and having automatic updating settings set back to ‘Install Updates Automatically,’ despite having selected to be notified before installation of updates.” Users who’ve encountered the problem should contact Microsoft Support at http://support.microsoft.com/security, Microsoft suggested.

Any users out there who encountered this problem this week?

source: blogs.zdnet.com

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Comments(18)

Big Brother..

By sjc1963 on 13.10.2007 - 02:10
big brother is at it again....

Who is stupid enough ?

By xavier on 13.10.2007 - 05:10
to do a live update.

My settings werent changed

By FUD Killer on 13.10.2007 - 06:10
i have my settings the same as the op and i didnt wake to a reboot nor had my settings changed. *shrug* maybe ms is out to get you?

Mine neither!

By Sophia on 13.10.2007 - 12:10
i'm using xp ultimate and my settings stayed the same!

At me is OK!

By Stari on 13.10.2007 - 14:10
my settings is ok..not change nothing. using windowsxp professional and after last update my os is more stability. thx microsoft....

at me too

By hool on 13.10.2007 - 15:10
i haven't any of that problems on my own computer but i saw this on computer of my friend who had a problem with wga ( original product win xp pro sp2 couldn't been recognized as a genuine ) and he had this problem with changing user settings in automatic updates.

NO PROBLEM

By ChineseMan on 13.10.2007 - 19:10
don't use the wrong cracked but the chinese's version

So Short Sighted the People have become...

By humble servent on 13.10.2007 - 22:10
why do the above individuals focus mostly upon non activated versions, when everyone might be concerned more with how a method exist to install new code without your consent.

you can be sure once said corporations get their way, like riaa and mpaa monopolies, microsoft could just shut off your windows operating system, or the law enforcement.

all it takes is yet another new law in favor of allowing this type of behavior, as it's apparent now the technological method already exist to do so...

and if that law doesn't get pass, no problem, microsoft can enforce it's ideology in other ways, like denying access unless proven to have the proper code or permission.

better wake up and start caring about the political scene effecting policies that create your environment.

Not just Vista

By nick on 13.10.2007 - 23:10
i'm using xp and after downloading the updates windows restarted, even though i have the setting "download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them."

Nineteen Eighty Four

By nick on 14.10.2007 - 00:10
i'm going to throw out an old word here.

predator

many here are fairly saavy so do i need to throw out newer words?

how about two; predator friendly

Linux Please

By TC on 14.10.2007 - 01:10
linux linux linux linux

I'm going to throw out an old word here

By Told u so on 14.10.2007 - 17:10
mac os x

What do you expect?

By FUDKiller on 14.10.2007 - 17:10
im sure some are running legit copies and some are pirated. if youre running pirated you have no right whatsoever b!tching about what ms does to your machine. none.

Piracy is Good! Monopolies are Evil!

By open source on 14.10.2007 - 19:10
sharing is evil you say? nobody shares with you, right?

what do you call a pirate? illegal redistribution?

that's what the distributors want you to think, claiming your all pirates for sharing your own culture! but the real truth of the matter is since computers, the internet, blogging, bit torrent came along, now the people can distribute themselves without having to wait and be told when and where they can access and share their culture.

the distributors were a monopoly, and they only view the means of distributing among individuals of society as a threat to their profits.

first, these distributors like mpaa for movies, and riaa for music and microsoft for software (operating system and word processing) are monopolies, and they don't actually create anything, as that requires the artist, the creators, the inventors the programmers which are always people like you and i in a society! the monopolies just distribute the work of individuals' is all.

and they profit for it, in the billions of dollars. mpaa distributes all over the world just as microsoft or riaa the works of individuals.

ask yourself, how many copies did riaa mass produce? why should a ladt sharing for free, no profit, 24 songs be called a pirate, but riaa gets to make billions of copies for profit?

doesn't that sound more like leeches of society? microsoft is a monopoly, and it also leeches off of the society, claiming their own our innovation, which we the people invented so they get to profit to sale it back to us.

they just want to hold on to their monopolies. innovation always changes how society functions, and lives. don't take my word for it, just look around...

how did steel, concrete, oil, electricity change the society you are living in?

imagine before steel, the wood industry had a monopoly on building, or brick until concrete came along.

if you don't want society to share, to create, to benefit from innovation, then by all means make everyone pirates, and deny them their rights to share with each other innovation, their culture, the works of their society.

and what do you get for that, north korea, where no sharing is allowed, no learning, nothing but work for the monopoly ruler!



We arent talking about movies and music, open source

By FUDKiller on 15.10.2007 - 01:10
we're talking about an os. stay on topic :)

what?!

By ppggpig on 15.10.2007 - 20:10
i only just find out that my updates also turned into automatic, after i read this article.
thanks god theres keznews.

keznwes rules!^^

yeah ok,

By fluffey joe on 18.10.2007 - 19:10
glitch my ass, i can bet that this functionality is built into windows, what they mean by glitch is that you are not supposed to see the updates they push to your system, you are no longer the true admin of your system, microshit is,

free yourself, ..use linux

MS should have been more transparent.

By nopcode on 19.10.2007 - 21:10
similar if not the same thing.
i had my update settings on "notify but do not download and install" for update, got a notice last friday that 1 update was available, (not patch tuesday, maybe force patch friday!) insatlled it and thought nothing more of it.

pc was sluggish all week, then it turns out my auto update settings, and system restore settings are now back to default, and theres some kind of new popup in xp when i access certain web content, similar to the vista access control popups. reset all the settings back to what i had, and now everything is alot smoother.
would still like to know exactly what happened tho.


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