Ok, I personally HATE MS updates and feel they add more security holes than the system already has so I disable ALL updates. EVERYTHING. I rarely update Windows, but I do it like every two months or so.

Anyways, my computer needs to be left online because I am constantly accessing it from all over. Well, one day I come home to find it booted into Linux since I dual boot. When I got back into Windows, a window said that Windows updated.

I think this is illegal. MS shouldn't be allowed to do that when you ask them not to. That's like having a telemarketer always call you, you tell them don't call me again and then they still call you. This is really dumb and I'm about to get on the phone with MS about this. It's absurd.

Anyone know of any registry hacks or any firewall rules I can create to block this?

Thanks!

[N]F

i havent been able to find which ports the updater actually uses to access microsofts servers but you might be able to work them out!

if you sert your firewall program to block everything and ask for permission before allowing then attempt an update you should get windows asking for access to the internet - this should show you the program or even the ports that it is using to access the internet.

using this information you should be able to formulate your own firewall rule to stop the updater accessing the internet and thus stopping it from downloading! hopefully this works for you, good luck!

Hi Nightfox,

My firewall (Jetico Personal Firewall) says that windows auto update contacts these adresses and remote ports:
- 195.85.129.24 (a26.ms.akamai.net, download.windowsupdate.com) remote port 80
- 65.55.192.29 (update.microsoft.com.nsatc.net, update.microsoft.com) remote port 443
Perhaps there are more when it actually FINDS new updates, then I'll edit this post!
Don't know if this is usefull but it might help. You could loop the hostnames back to 127.0.0.1 via the hosts file or something (don't have any experiance with this on windows!).

bakr_2k5

This post has been edited by bakr_2k5: Dec 16 2006, 01:39 PM

It shouldn't have done that. If you disabled it, I don't recall ever seeing it updating on it's own. Even if you set it to automatically update, which I do for all my users, I usually choose the option to at least ask you before it actually installs the updates.

It should be easy to add those IP addresses to the HOSTS file in Windows. If you are using Windows XP, the HOSTS file should be located in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\. Open up the HOSTS file (no extensions) in Notepad and add something like this to it:


Notice the space after 127.0.0.1. Then save the HOSTS file. That should block it out.

Actually weaponx it auto updates sometimes. I had a update a few days ago in which it never mention to me that their was a update. Now a restart pop u[ shows up in which it gives you an option to restart now or later. Of course this pop up is on a timer so after a minute or two it will restart automatically.

Now I am assuming that you disabled it in the normal fashion through the windows menu's and all that crazy stuff now I found a to disable it through the key register.


Now if you tried it that way then my hands are tied on what to do next.

port 80 and 443 are important ports and u wouldn't want to close 'em.

Windows sometimes ignore your settings because Microsoft "feels" that they are "critical" updates.

xboxrulz

Bear in mind guys, MS products are meant for the bottom of the pyramid guys. Meaning low end computer illiterates. We guys are a little too smart for Windows XP or any other desktop OS. So I personally use Windows Server 2003 in office. It is really secure and superb, has no performance glitches, and does what you tell it to.

Ya its strange to see gentleman behavior from a MS product.

I have also found a windows service that controls updates for the computer. its name is 'wuauserv' and its friendly name is Windows Update. Below is the Description of what the services does:

Enables the detection, download, and installation of updates for Windows and other programs. If this service is disabled, users of this computer will not be able to use Windows Update or its automatic updating feature, and programs will not be able to use the Windows Update Agent (WUA) API.

the executable path is:

C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs

and on my computer it is set on Autopmatic (Delayed Start).

as far as i can tell the program always seems to be running. Im am not totally sure whether this program/service runs on all windows version (this information was taken from vista rc1) so it may not be available on all computers, but its still worth a try!