So what is the big deal about having Windows Update service on? It’s a big deal because you are allowing Microsoft to put whatever they want on your system.

If you think that Microsoft will only put on needed updates, think again. A perfect example was when Microsoft added the Windows Genuine Advantage as a critical update. Doing that, pushed the Windows Genuine Advantage update out to every system (that had Automatic Updates Enabled). For those of you who do not remember, Windows Genuine Advantage is a piece of software that checks a user’s copy of Windows to see if it is an unauthorized copy.

The biggest problem with Windows Genuine Advantage, was that often times it would produce a false positive and identify a legitimate version as being unauthorized. When this occurred, there were pop ups that would say, “you may be a victim of Software counterfeiting…”, along with a link to purchase a legitimate copy. These nag pop ups were incredibly annoying and nearly impossible to get rid of. In the end, Microsoft provided removal instructions for Windows Genuine Advantage (but they did not release it as a critical update, thus it was not fed out to the users with Automatic Updates on).

The Technical Description

Automatic Updates is a service that is used to automatically connect to Microsoft and download critical updates and update your computer.

Translation

The technical description for this service really isn’t that technical at all. So for this service the translation and the technical description are the same.

If you do not mind if Microsoft installs whatever they want on your system (and if you want to set-it-and-forget-it), then the recommended setting is Automatic.

But if you are like me and do not like giving Microsoft a free pass to put whatever they want on your system, then set this service to Disabled , in addition, you will want to read this guide, which shows a workaround to take care of the Windows Update Problem.