automatic updates

[bonehead]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

Hi dudes

I've set up a limited account on the family PC so my little sister can't
fill it with games, adware and file-sharing programs, but I'm a bit
confused about automatic updates and limited accounts. If you can't
install programs as a limited user, how can you run automatic updates?
Is Windows 'smart' enough to know it's running with limited privs or
does it try to install updates anyway? I'd hate for Windows to download
MBs of updates only to discard them because of an installation error,
or, worse, to get some nasty crash when Windows is trying to install
critical patches behind the scenes but fails.

Does anyone know the details? Should I disable automatic updates and
update it manually?

If so, how often should this be done?

Many thanks,
bonehead

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

From the windows update newsgroup -

"
Pat Walters [MSFT] Apr 25,2005
Subject: Re: Problem

Installing updates to Windows requires that an administrator at *some*
point, approve them for installation. This is a policy decision arrived
at after careful consideration. After all, I'm sure you would not want
to get into a situation in which the users installed an updated driver
that you *knew* would cause problems across the network--because you
tested this update on a test machine on the network and knew the
hazard--and yet were powerless to stop them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pat Walters [MSFT] April 28,2005
Subject: Re:Admin Account or not

This is "by design," and please allow me to explain why. The Windows
Updates require an End User License Agreement (EULA). While one EULA
may handle many of the updates you have downloaded, there will
occasionally be a new one that must be approved with a given update.
The decision was made that a Network Administrator would have the
authority to decide if and when an update installed on a machine --
whether specifically or via policy. So, if the user account is
not part of the local "Administrators" group on the machine, then they
cannot install updates by themselves. "
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can set Automatic Updates to " Notify me but do not download or
install them ". Then sign on as the Admin to complete the updating
process when the User is notified of available updates.

HTH,
MowGreen {MVP 2004-2005]
===============
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
===============


bonehead wrote:

> Hi dudes
>
> I've set up a limited account on the family PC so my little sister can't
> fill it with games, adware and file-sharing programs, but I'm a bit
> confused about automatic updates and limited accounts. If you can't
> install programs as a limited user, how can you run automatic updates?
> Is Windows 'smart' enough to know it's running with limited privs or
> does it try to install updates anyway? I'd hate for Windows to download
> MBs of updates only to discard them because of an installation error,
> or, worse, to get some nasty crash when Windows is trying to install
> critical patches behind the scenes but fails.
>
> Does anyone know the details? Should I disable automatic updates and
> update it manually?
>
> If so, how often should this be done?
>
> Many thanks,
> bonehead