Microsoft Denies Having Been Caught with Its Hand in Your Vista Cookie Jar

Microsoft denies having been caught with its hand in your Windows Vista cookie jar. Following the release of the October 9 security bulletins, in accordance with the company's monthly patch cycle, reports ensued pointing that Microsoft was altering the users' copies of the Vista operating system without bothering to inform or to ask for consent. It wouldn't have been the first time when the Redmond company had gone ahead and introduced changes to the Windows platform without the users' knowledge. But this time around, Microsoft is denying any foul play on its behalf.

Still, user reports that the past Tuesday's update release was modifying automatic updating settings on their copies of Windows Vista lead to Microsoft investigating the matter. Nate Clinton, Microsoft Update Program Manger, revealed initially after looking into the matter and analyzing logs from customers that the Automatic Update settings had not been altered by changes to the AU client or by the updates it installed. At that point in time, Microsoft stated that it was moving forward with the investigation in order to determine the cause that generated that AU settings' alteration.

"From the customer logs that we received, we found that none of the updates released as part of the October security release have made any changes to users' AU settings. In fact, in the logs we reviewed, AU in all cases was set to "install updates automatically" prior to the October security release", Clinton explained, contradicting claims from end users that the updates had been deployed automatically, despite the fact that they had set up the service only to download the items but not to install them.

"I want to stress that the Windows Update client does not change AU settings without user's consent. However, AU settings can be set or changed in the following scenarios:

- During the installation of Windows Vista, the user chooses one of the first two recommended options in the "Out of Box Experience" and elects to get updates automatically from Windows
- The user goes to the Windows Update Control Panel and changes the AU setting manually
- The user goes to Security Center in Windows Vista and changes the AU setting
- The user chooses to opt in to Microsoft Update from the Microsoft Update web site
- The user chooses to opt in to Microsoft Update during the installation or the first run experience of another Microsoft application such as Office 2007", Clinton added.