South Korean tech giant Samsung has announced on Friday that it will cease its tampering with Windows’ automatic update system, after a long week of complaints coming from both customers and Microsoft itself.
A spokesperson for the company stated that a patch will be rolled out in the next few days which will solve an issue with Samsung PC’s and tablets ending with Microsoft’s default automatic update being overwritten by Samsung’s own Software Update program. Apparently, the program changed Windows Update settings from the default automatic install to an option which lets users decide if they want to download or install them.
The news was broken earlier this week by reverse engineering expert Patrick Barker, ranked as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, who accused Samsung of doing this intentionally to tamper with the operating system’s update. Samsung Software Update is used by default on tablets and computers which are made by the South Korean tech giant, being used to automatically update drivers and third party software.
The two companies exchanged blows through its PR teams during the course of last week, with Windows stating that it was looking into Barker’s findings while also issuing a security warning against changing default values for users. Samsung retaliated strangely by denying to block Windows updates – even if it was never accused of that – while also admitting that its own program changes default Windows Update settings.
The tech giants seemed to have reached an agreement by Friday, when Samsung released the aforementioned statement while also noting that it “values its partnership with Microsoft”. No other details or explanations regarding the whole situation have been offered by either of the two companies.
Microsoft’s prompt reaction comes as no surprise, as Windows Updates are going to play the decisive role in the upcoming Windows 10. As the company has stated several times, this will be last major Windows release, and all improvements to it will come under the guise of updates rather than totally new versions of its operating system.
On the short term, Windows Update will be the means of delivering the upcoming free Windows 10 update for Windows 7 and 8 users, marking this as the first time an entirely new operating system will be distributed through the system. However, the problem might go deeper than this: Windows 10 will not offer users options on how to manage their updates, but will automatically download and install them as soon as they are available.
Image Source: Gizmodo
