Originally Posted by stormkeep
Where I came from sneaking means you are trying to avoid detection. If they were trying to avoid detection they wouldn't say right in the details what it does and how to remove it. Call it underhanded if you want, but "Sneaky" it wasn't.
And btw, yes, I consider it foolish to have completely "automatic updates" for anything other than AV/Anti-spyware foolish. Windows Update has a very nice tool that tells you what is available and lets you first read the details, and then choose what to update. It's the smart thing to do so that if something DOES go wrong you actually know what the heck recently changed.
The simple fact is that a person's PC is NOT going to have anything they don't want installed onto it unless they CHOOSE to do so. Choosing to let MS automatically install what they want by having auto-update on is user choice, plain and simple. And there's no one the user can blame but themself, imho. MS doesn't do stealth auto-updates. The updates are documented and users only get them automatically if they have chosen to do so. Yet you think the blame should fall more on the company than on the users who told them "go ahead and put what you want on my machine"? That's the problem with society today, no one wants to be accountable for their own choices.
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The issue is that Microsoft does not provide service to just technology enthusiasts, who know their way around a computer. They have their product reach, I want to say 75% of household computers today? The issue is that for many of these people, they are trusting Microsoft with keeping them safe. That's why they pay the cash for the operating system, and whatever needs to be done down the road to keep them safe.
It's not a stupidity thing. It's an ignorance thing. Millions of people around the world don't know a computer much more than a text editor and an internet browser. They
trust Microsoft to keep their digital data secure. When Microsoft says that an update is either "urgent" or "highly recommended" or something to that sort, the communication that is made is "this is critical in keeping your digital data and your entire system safe from hackers". Believe it or not.
Are they technically sneaky? No. You correctly asserted that they documented the update, and even a way to undo it. Is it at all clear exactly what happened to the end user who may not be completely tech-savvy, who never looks at an update beyond the "update now" (or are even on auto-update and auto-install)? Further, is there a simple "undo" method? Technically, yes there is
a method, but not one that could be called "simple" or approachable. While you or I may not have an issue with editing the registry, that command either gives the ordinary person with low to moderate computer experience hives, or confuses the hell out of them. (To be honest, most will never know it's even there, or even an issue, to begin with.)
You said it yourself - you see the sense in turning an antivirus or firewall on auto-update. This is the same mentality that many, many people approach updating their OS with.