Samsung has decided to stop messing with Windows Updater, and restore the system operations to normal. The South Korean company was discovered to have been blocking Windows automated updates, and forcing the system to use its own utility programme.
A security analyst revealed the tampering with Windows Updater operations last week, as it was noted that Samsung laptops ran a programme named Disable_Windowsupdate.exe. This disabled Windows’ ability to update itself, and allowed Samsung’s SW Updater. When questioned about the situation, a Samsung rep replied that there was a chance that Microsoft updates for Windows could interfere with Samsung hardware drivers and cause things like the USB ports to stop functioning.
Samsung has issued a statement saying that it will stop disabling the Windows Updater. The patch will be pushed out to through Samsung’s SW Updater and should be arriving on users’ laptops soon. However, the company has still not yet explained why it thought it would be a good idea to prevent automatic updates for the OS; especially considering how often Microsoft publishes Windows 8.1 patches these days.
In any case, this situation is another argument against the ridiculous amount of bloatware that manufacturers try to stuff into their products. While it wasn’t quite as problematic as the Lenovo Silverfish fiasco, it was still enough for Samsung laptop owners to be concerned.
[Source: Ars Technica]
