Update: Windows Update gets update

Davey Winder
Sunday, 06 July 2008 04:28

Business IT - Technology

Microsoft has announced that it will be rolling out an infrastructure update to the Windows Update agent over the next few months. So how does Windows keep itself up-to-date and what does the Update update mean to you?

Michelle Haven, a product manager within the Microsoft Windows Update team, does not mince her words. So when she posted to the update team blog that there was an imminent infrastructure update happening, it should come as no surprise that the headline simply stated: Upcoming Update to Windows Update.

The surprise, to be honest, is that anything was posted at all. Back in August 2007 many Windows users were shocked to discover that a number of files in both the XP and Vista operating systems had been changed by Windows Update. The reason they were taken aback by the system update was that they had not been given any notification of it in advance, no permission dialog had appeared. Perhaps unsurprisingly, users who had configured their systems to download updates 'but let me choose whether to install them' were update anyway. As were those who had opted for 'but let me choose whether to download and install them' as well.

Of course, that was then and this is the post-all-that-fuss-from-the-media now. Microsoft has made a lot of effort to ensure anyone who is interested knows what it is doing behind the scenes with regard to this infrastructure update. There is even an official Knowledge Base article (946928) helpfully entitled "Information for network administrators about how to obtain the latest Windows Update Agent" which provides just that.

Microsoft argues that it is necessary for this self-updating behaviour when it comes to infrastructure updates in order to ensure that users are able to successfully check for updates apparently. In a somewhat confusing explanation, it says that if Windows Update could not do this it might cause some users to believe they have all the latest security updates even though there was no installation of notification of the same.

What does Microsoft have to say about opting out, and what will this update actually do? Read on to find out...

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