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Microsoft responds to Samsung disabling Windows Update on selected PCs

The fallout from Samsung's ill-judged decision to block Windows Update from running on some of its notebooks continues as Microsoft issues a statement condemning the practice.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer
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The fallout from Samsung's ill-judged decision to block Windows Update from running on some of its notebooks continues as Microsoft issues a statement condemning the practice.

Microsoft MVP Patrick Barker identified a small program called Disable_Windowsupdate.exe being pushed as part of Samsung's SW Update tool, which prevented Windows Update from automatically running in the background on PCs, forcing users to either live without updates or manually download them from Microsoft.

A Microsoft spokesperson has released a statement denouncing the practice:

"Windows Update remains a critical component of our security commitment to our customers. We do not recommend disabling or modifying Windows Update in any way as this could expose a customer to increased security risks. We are in contact with Samsung to address this issue."

Samsung has since issued a statement that fails to address the security concerns from releasing a tool that blocks Windows Update.

"It is not true that we are blocking a Windows 8.1 operating system update on our computers. As part of our commitment to consumer satisfaction, we are providing our users with the option to choose if and when they want to update the Windows software on their products. We take product security very seriously and we encourage any Samsung customer with product questions or concerns to contact us directly."

Samsung support staff had previously stated that the tool was used to prevent Windows Update from overwriting driver files with incompatible drivers.

As of the time of writing, the program is still available for download from the Samsung website.

This comes a few months after Lenovo was called out for bundling the Superfish crapware that turned out to contain a serious security vulnerability. Lenovo has since promised to end the custom of preinstalling bloatware and junkware onto its systems.

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