Shame on Samsung
It's a given that pre-built PCs might come with bloatware installed, but one thing you don't expect third-party software to do is disable Windows Update on the down low. Yet that's exactly what Samsung is doing on some of the PCs it sells. Talk about a "WTF?" moment.
Patrick Barker, a Microsoft MVP who specializes in analysis, debugging, and reverse engineering, discovered Samsung's dubious behavior while assisting a user with a computer issue. Some sneaky program kept disabling Windows Update on the user's PC, and after some troubleshooting, Barker found the cause to be Samsung's SW Update software.
Samsung's software is an OEM updating tool that updates the system's drivers and keeps third-party utilities (bloatware) installed.
"You can install relevant software for your computer easier and faster using SW Update. The SW Update program helps you install and update your software and driver easily," the tool's description reads.
Barker had the user audit his registry and found an entry for Disable_Windowsupdate.exe, which was found to be part of Samsung's own software tool. It's downloaded as part of a ZIP file from Samsung and is configured to load when Windows boots.
When speaking with a support rep at Samsung, Barker was told that Samsung's software always disables Windows Update, and that if a user tries to re-enable it, the software will disable it again upon reboot.
What's the point? The rep explained that Windows Update installs the default drivers for the hardware on a laptop, and that they don't always work. So to prevent that from happening, Samsung's software tool automatically disables Windows Update.
We can understand the reasoning, and perhaps Samsung's intentions are truly good and all. Still, disabling Windows Update on PCs leaves a bad taste in our mouths, the same way Lenovo's Superfish did.
Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook
From maximumpc
from http://bit.ly/1LvyNi5
