An un-stealthy Windows Update update

In July of 2007, Microsoft began pushing out an automatic update to the Windows Update client software that runs on Windows Vista and XP. From Microsoft’s point of view it was routine stuff, done many times before and never considered controversial. Except this update had an unfortunate bug that affected a small number of customers that repaired PC’s using the repair option on the Windows XP installation media. The discussion of that bug and its fix revealed to many people that Microsoft had installed an update automatically, without any notice.

So, for this year’s Windows Update infrastructure update and accompanying client software update, Microsoft is overcommunicating in advance, scheduling conference calls with the press, blogging about the change, updating a KB article. Oh, and when you do get the update you’ll see an entry in the Windows Update history log that provides more details.

I’ve got more details over at ZDNet:

Nothing stealthy about this Windows Update update