MS "Stealth" Update

[fritzi93]

Some of you may know that Microsoft released a "stealth" update in late August. It was undocumented and unconsented-to, even by those who review and choose which updates they accept. It turns out that if you have done a repair install, this poison pill destroys Windows Update.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=817&tag=nl.e539

When MS first pushed out WGA (similarly undocumented and not consented to), I swore I'd never use WU again and rolled the b@stard back. At the time, you could use Autopatcher and WindizUpdate.

Pressure from Microsoft has caused the Autopatcher team to close shop (Google autopatcher, you can still find the August releases on the 'net). So there remains WindizUpdate:

http://windizupdate.com/

Laziness has prevented me from switching over to Ubuntu completely, even though I have finally got around to setting up dual-boot. Microsoft will continue to misbehave. It's effectively a monopoly, and human nature being what it is, they will try to get away with whatever they can. They have a mountain of money and an almost unassailably dominant position. But they won't have my business. Big deal, but nevertheless....

[pip22]

Another case of anti-Microsoft paranoia. As long as your copy of Windows is legal I don't see what all the fuss is about.

[fritzi93]

Did you read the article? I wouldn't characterise it as paranoia. But there's room to differ as to how serious is the breach of trust. Here's what I take from it:

1) If you think your consent is required for an update, you're wrong. That is, if MS decides to conceal it from you. Again, not the first time they've done this, viz: WGA. The outcry at the time caused some furious backpedalling by MS.
2) This update was not benign. The writer waited to see if further updates fixed the problem. Nope. The fix is gunna be more than the average computer user can competently handle. Not a peep from MS as of yet.

I'll concede that my attitude is: it's my computer dammit, and I demand full disclosure. That's why things like this annoy me.

[EDIT] Oh, and this affects LEGITIMATE installs. Do a repair install and WU will be broken on your comp.

[fritzi93]

More reports, and still no explanation:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=832

This may have implications for network administration. Here's one viewpoint:

http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-12558...ssageID=737902

Disabling the service is not enough:

http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-12558...&s tart=-9736

I confess I'm not competent enough in this area to assess what all this really means. But I've been leery of automatic updates since WGA and I'm leaving it off.