Microsoft denied that it is messing around with the settings of the Windows Vista operating systems without the users' consent. The Redmond company has set up a complex updating infrastructure designed to keep copies of the Windows platform up to date on the latest functionality patches, as well as serve security updates for the product. Following the latest wave of security bulletins that began shipping on October 9, Windows Vista users revealed that the patches delivered via Automatic Updates managed to change the settings of the operating system.

The issue is related to an undisclosed number of users that set up their Vista copies to download updates but not deploy them automatically. According to reports from users, the October 9 updates bypassed the settings and went ahead and not only completed the download to the respective Vista platforms, but also finalized the deployment and rebooted the systems in question. Subsequently, the option to be notified before installation of updates is changed with no user consent or intervention and moved back to the default Install Updates Automatically. Microsoft acknowledged the issue, and stated that an investigation into the matter is well under way.

However, the Redmond company denied that Automatic Updates is at fault in any way. "We have been hearing some questions recently regarding Tuesday's update release changing automatic updating 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. 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," stated Nate Clinton, Program Manger, Microsoft Update.