“Microsoft Corp. executives, digging out from the aftermath of an unwelcome Internet worm that wriggled into [at least] 500,000 of its customers’ computers last week, say that it is time to consider making software updates automatic for home users of the Windows operating system,” Brian Krebs reports for washingtonpost.com. “The company is ‘looking very seriously’ at requiring future versions of Windows to accept automatic software fixes unless the user specifically refuses to receive them, said Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s security business unit.”
“‘The feedback we got when we did XP a few years ago was ‘I don’t want Microsoft automatically putting things onto my machine,” Nash said. ‘What we’re finding now is that through a combination of the availability of broadband and customers wanting to stay up to date with security patches, and, most importantly, considering the kinds of threats out there now, that customers want us to keep them up to date automatically — not just by downloading the patches for them but installing them as well,” Krebs reports.
“The next version of Windows, which analysts expect to be completed in late 2004, could be the first to let the Auto Update feature download patches from Microsoft without requiring the user’s explicit approval. Microsoft is also considering whether to make the Auto Update mandatory earlier, through an interim upgrade known as a service pack. A final decision to make the feature mandatory for home users has not yet been made, but one Microsoft executive called it ‘the ideal solution.'”
Full article here.