Blogs were buzzing last week with reports that Windows users who thought they had automatic updates set to either not install or get permission before installing nonetheless had their machines patched and rebooted.
On Friday afternoon, Microsoft posted a response to its Web site saying no changes were made to the automatic update mechanism nor did any recent updates change AU settings.
The company is looking into whether customers might have actually had their settings changed by Microsoft Office or Windows OneCare, two programs that do have mechanisms that will change a computer's automatic update preference settings.
"We have received some logs from customers, and have so far been able to determine that their AU settings were not changed by any changes to the AU client itself and also not changed by any updates installed by AU," program manager Nate Clinton said on Microsoft's Web site.
"We are still looking into this to see if another application is making this change during setup with user consent, or if this issue is related to something else. We are continuing the investigation, and as I have more information I will update this post," he added.
The company is asking anyone experiencing an issue to contact its customer support so that it can get more information.
Meanwhile, in a separate posting, Clinton acknowledged that some people are having trouble manually installing updates after moving to the latest version of Windows Update.
The issues on Friday follow an earlier outcry over the discovery that the Windows Update utility updates itself regardless of whether automatic updates are turned on.
For my money and in my opinion,that is a crock!.MICROSOFT has,in their own arrogant,self-serving manner,to take over complete control of MY/OUR computers,set the automatic updates to download and install whether we like it or not!.I had to get another highly qualified Tech person to come and re-build the screen because once MS takes control,they totally GRAY out the entire screen and no changes/options are allowed.I have now set my extreme firewall to alert me to any and all subtle queries,entries,into my computer to be stopped,unless I give permission.I look,see what is wanted and if I'm suspicious,the answer is NO!!.Just two weeks ago now,I was looking carefully through all entries for Internet Explorer within the Add/Remove screen and deliberately deleted all IE updates except the original install of IE7,checked out every updated KB number to see if it was in anyway related to IE7 and found them all okay.Re-booted machine and I MUST tell you that now,with those IE7 updates gone,the browser works like it has NEVER worked before.Now,I can stop using Safari for Windows and K-Meleon browser but keeping them handy.It is now fast,easy to use,all the things I want--that were blocked by the updates,now work like a charm,most happy indeed.Now,whether an update for IE7 comes via the icon in systray or through Updates website,I remove the tik and just take everything else.THIS IS MY/OUR COMPUTER FOLKS,MS has NO right to tell us what we'll do,what we'll see,how we'll use the browser.I think it is past high time the US government and every other government worldwide makes some serious law changes on this issue.You buy a car,it's yours,your buy a house,it's yours,you buy an expensive copy of the MS OS and it SHOULD be yours,not rented,leased,loaned,it's BS to my mind.Presently,there isn't ONE operating process to do with Microsoft that can enter here without my express okay and I want to read about the reason they want access or to Call HOME.In closing,anyone who needs,wants to have the Office suite should definitely remove MS Office,all parts and switch to OpenOffice.Org v 2.3 WHICH IS FREE not mega hunfreds of dollars.The Powerpoint viewer in OpenOffice is far,far superior to MS version 2007.Just how long before everyone finally says ENOUGH IS ENOUGH already.