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ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes claimed the software giant was installing patches on his machines, even though his automatic update settings were configured to download and notify him before installation. Kingsley-Hughes claimed the "stealth updates" were the beginning of a "slippery slope", where Microsoft was updating PCs without the express permission of the owner.

However, Microsoft claims the only patches being installed on Kingsley-Hughes's machine were, ironically, critical updates to the Windows Update software itself. "Windows Update is a service that primarily delivers updates to Windows. To ensure on-going service reliability and operation, we must also update and enhance the Windows Update service itself, including its client side software," says Nate Clinton, product manager for Windows

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Update on his own blog. "These upgrades are important if we are to maintain the quality of the service."

Clinton insists it is essential to make these patches, even where users had requested to be informed of updates. "Any user who chooses to use Windows Update either expected updates to be installed or to at least be notified that updates were available," he argues. "Had we failed to update the service automatically, users would not have been able to successfully check for updates and, in turn, users would not have had updates installed automatically or received expected notifications.

"That result would not only fail to meet customer expectations but even worse, that result would lead users to believe that they were secure even though there was no installation and/or notification of upgrades."

However, Clinton admits Microsoft should have done a better job of explaining the update process to its customers. "The point of this explanation is not to suggest that we were as transparent as we could have been; to the contrary, people have told us that we should have been clearer on how Windows Update behaves when it updates itself.

"This is helpful and important feedback, and we are now looking at the best way to clarify WU's behavior to customers so that they can more clearly understand how WU works."