microsoft sneaking patches into pcs

I have uniblue spyeraser and the last two days after logging into my browser I get a workaround warning. Scotty dog detected a new program wanting installed, I investigated and it was Microsoft. I don't know about you but I don't like having my puter monkeyed with in a clandestine way.

What really gets my knickers in a twist is when they do this while you're running a long program. I have some analysis runs that take days, and I've come back to find it rebooted and the little "It was necessary to reboot your machine following an upgrade' notice.

Well, dammit, I turned OFF the #$&*# upgrades on purpose, for just that reason. Thanks, MS, down the tubes with 3 days of time.

The latest round is not the only time they've done it, either, cutting off the upgrades slowed it a lot but they have rebooted my machine twice after an upgrade I neither wanted, needed, nor permitted over the last six months.

I've had it make the updates and problems slow(processing, errors), without my knowledge before. I'm not a big fan of Windows, compared to other OSs, it's less of a hassle at the current time, plus programs I use are all supported by it. For me the updates have always caused dll errors and such thus why I don't do them but good to know they are probably the source of some reason problems and to stop the process.

[edit on 14-9-2007 by dreamingawake]

reply to post by dreamingawake


How do you stop the process if they ignore the WU being turned off? It's like buying a car where the dealership keeps an extra set of keys so they can come open the hood and muck around any time they chose.

Well it does require a server from which to get its weather data, so maybe the server went down? It was missing from my sidebar 'get more gadgets' pane as well.

Another funny thing just now...just noticed that Internet Explorer uses two files. 'ieuser.exe' and 'iexplore.exe'. If you close 'iexplore.exe', the other one continues to run in memory. (at least on my system - Vista).



[edit on 14-9-2007 by Badge01]

Originally posted by Pfeil
1) well YOU doubt it. That doesnt make it law.

If I was a lawyer, it would.

...Or a judge.

Not even a judge. A legislator?

Maybe when I become president, anyway.

Originally posted by Pfeil
2)No, I put my ear to the ground and was told that I was having internet connectivity. Yes my modem, what else would tell me that?

There's a lot of ways, [personal insults removed], these ways include routers, firewalls, and other software connection monitors. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

Originally posted by Pfeil
3)It has not done that before, like I said "over the past few days."

Reformat? As in deleting all the data on my hard drive and reinstalling all of it again? I have no idea how that would help.

Of course not, that would take actual experience in the computer industry. And a brain - you're lacking in at least one of those categories, anyway. I've personally fixed at least a dozen computers with those symptoms by reformatting. It could be drivers, partition errors, registry issues, programs that run at startup (yes, it can happen suddenly), fragmentation, Windows errors, data corruption... It goes on and on. Generally, if you don't reformat a computer every so often, it will get slower.

Originally posted by Pfeil
4)Whether or not they have broken a law is irrelevant. I have turned off auto-updates on my PC and if they are putting files on my PC without my authorization, then that is wrong. Writing my senator and representative will alert them to what MS is doing and THEY will have people to look into it. If enough people contact them about it or if this concerns them to the point of taking the initiative to look into it and take care of it.

If you have a problem about anything you can write your senator/representative about it. Thats what they are there for, thats how Democracy works.

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[edit on 14-9-2007 by 12m8keall2c]

Originally posted by sardion2000
Or you can just use Wine for Linux.

Bah. Quicken doesn't emulate right. Give me Quicken or give me death!

This latest move has pushed me to try and hack it again though.

There is a new version of Wine out so maybe they fixed the issues with Quicken.

To stop Microsoft from accessing computer, Go start--->run---->services.msc

Set 'Automatic Updates' AND 'Background Intellegent Transfer Service' startup type to DISABLED and restart computer. That will stop Windows update from working properly, so make sure to start both of them up if you want an update or have a dependancy.

To see what things you're connected too, go start---->run---->cmd---->type 'netstat' without quotes. That shows you a list of things you're connected too, and you can also get a freetrial off Netlimiter (google it) to see active connections and there transfer rates. You can also block connections with Netlimiter, or you can try using your Firewall.

As for me, I don't really give a dead mooses last sh#7 if Microsoft attempts to send me files, I just stop them.

Tom Bedlam although I have never heard of Automatic updates still running when you've disabling it, try manually disabling Automatic updates and BITS as I state above.

[edit on 15/9/07 by JimmyCarterIsSmarter]

I'll probably get in trouble for this, but what the hell?

Forget about microsoft updates altogether, get them here...

windizupdate.com...

Only the updates you really need. Works with Firefox, Opera etc. No need to use IE any more. Get rid of that junk!

Here is something very strange to add.

I've always (last four years) used autopatcher instead of getting my updates from windows.
Autopatcher is a collection of all windows updates in one executable file.

Well they've just been told they are not allowed to do this anymore. Read here. www.neowin.net...

AutoPatcher no longer allowed
I had a call from Microsoft Legal this morning and they have told me that we are no longer allowed to endorse AutoPatcher on Neowin.

Microsoft will only allow updates to be downloaded from its own servers.

AutoPatcher started in 2003 and has been redistributed in some of the worlds best computer magazine cover CD/DVD's. I have no explanation for why Microsoft allowed it to continue unchecked for 4 years before making this decision.

I asked the representative if Windows Genuine Advantage had anything to do with it and he categorically told me this was not the case, he added that Windows Update for pre-Vista versions of Windows can now be accessed using Firefox and that the concern at Microsoft had more to do with the possible malicious code that could be redistributed with certified Microsoft updates.

We have no grounds to challenge the decision by Microsoft.

I'd like to thank the whole AutoPatcher team for their continued work, unfortunately none of the team is online, but they have been contacted via the AutoPatcher.com website by Microsoft Legal.

The AutoPatcher forums have been disabled for guests and members

And here...autopatcher.com...

Sad day
Posted by Antonis Kaladis on August 29th, 2007 |

Today we received an e-mail from Microsoft, requesting the immediate take-down of the download page, which of course means that AutoPatcher is probably history. As much as we disagree, we can do very little, and although the download page is merely a collection of mirrors, we took the download page down.

We would like to thank you for your support. For the past 4 years, it has been a blast. Unfortunately, it seems like it's the end of AutoPatcher as we know it.

Comments are welcome...

Antonis Kaladis

more....globalgeek.thepodcastnetwork.com...


[edit: changed "code" to "external source" tags]

[edit on 15-9-2007 by 12m8keall2c]

people on the neowin forums are agreeing. "maybe this is why they wanted auto-patcher off the scene" Microsoft updates Windows without users' consent... www.windowssecrets.com...



This probably wont last long. Most autopatcher mirrors are now dead but I found one. This file is over 300 mb but it is every xp update needed til aug 2007. you can chooses just critical updates to be installed and many other options.
fileforum.betanews.com...

[edit on 9/15/2007 by ghoulardi]

reply to post by justyc


Solution: Get a third party firewall program. I've been blocking svchost from accessing microsoft domains these past few days. I was wondering why it would want to connect there. So this is the reason it seems.

How to check if your PC has the secret update

If a system has been patched in the past few months, the nine executables in Windows\System32 will either show an earlier version number, 7.0.6000.374, or the stealth patch: 7.0.6000.381. (The version numbers can be seen by right-clicking a file and choosing Properties. In XP, click the Version tab and then select File Version. In Vista, click the Details tab.)

In addition, PCs that received the update will have new executables in subfolders named 7.0.6000.381 under the following folders:

c:\Windows\System32\SoftwareDistribution\Setup\ServiceStartup\wups.dll
c:\Windows\System32\SoftwareDistribution\Setup\ServiceStartup\wups2.dll

I'm going slightly off at a tangent & apologise in advance for not addressing the thread. But I've used umpteen versions of Windows over the years, 95, 98, 2000, XP and Vista Ultimate ... and I'm afraid it was Vista which drove me "over the edge" ... for me Vista is just lipstick on a pig. I've had umpteen problems with Vista, mainly involving drivers for graphics cards & hardware. And Windows Update packed in. In fact, an awful lot of Vista just gave up on me and for no particular reason - my PC spec is miles above the minimum required for Vista.

2 weeks ago today I was preparing to "upgrade" back to XP. But, by coincidence, an Ubuntu CD got delivered last Saturday morning. So I thought I'd give it a try as an experiment. Installed the new operating system no problem. I had slightly more difficulty installing the Compiz-Fusion graphics but with a bit of perseverance managed to do that eventually.

And you know something ? It's so easy to use, looks absolutely fantastic, it's fast, it's robust (not one error message or crash in 2 weeks) and has next to none of the virus problems that plagues Windows machines. It's free. And it's not Microsoft ... and I'm never ever going back to Windows in any form whatsoever.

There's a new version of Ubuntu coming out in October, v. 7.10, but you can download the software or request an install disc for v. 7.04 here if you want to give it a try ...

www.ubuntu.com...

If you're still not convinced, have a look on YouTube and take a look at the graphics you can get with Ubuntu. Here's just a couple to consider.

www.youtube.com... (a comparison between Vista and Ubuntu)
www.youtube.com... (little bit more detail about the Compiz-Fusion graphics available)

Again, apologies for the derail. But I've become almost a Linux evangelist during the last 2 weeks. I just can't believe I've been such an ass and never considered Linux before now.

If I was forced to use Linux for a production system, I'd use a Mac with OS-X.

But you can't get 1% of the apps I use normally on Linux. And with a few exceptions, Linux is not a useful development target for my military or security conscious customers.

For playing games and surfing the net, yay. For running finite element analysis, you can forget it.

I'm still trying to figure out what's so great about Ubuntu. It's just a spawn of Debian, yes? From what I can determine from the website it's just Debian fluffed up and dumbed down for newbies.

Is that all? If not, what?

You hit the nail on the head APC.

Ah. well OK then. I grabbed the latest deb-stable image last night after I checked and found I've been an MS victim (actually I've been a victim since 6.2). Quicken had better work right... grr...

reply to post by apc



LOL. Touche. Point well taken.
But perhaps some of us need Linux dumbed down. Otherwise we'd never have made the jump in the first place ... it seems a good starting point for Linux n00bs like me