this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
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"via Windows Update" - key piece of info missing from the headline "for some reason".
Yeah, I don't see a need for Windows update to do any 3rd party stuff.
Why not? We essentially have this in the Linux world and it’s great. You have a package manager that pulls from your distro’s repositories and it’s filled with all kinds of software, although most drivers come packaged with the kernel. Most stuff is completely plug and play. You end up with one click (or command) software installations for just about everything so you’re not hunting around the internet and downloading installers. Everything you need, including dependencies, gets pulled in and it stays up to date without every app bundling it’s own updater. It’s super convenient.
Because Microsoft manages Windows update, it's not like a package manager in Linux.
I don't want Microsoft telling me when I should update an Epson printer driver.
Well, you could think of Microsoft as your distro. Generally, if they’re telling you to upgrade a driver, you should do it. At a minimum, everyone should be automatically installing security updates. This is one of the most important services an operating system vendor provides.
If you don’t trust them to do that or you don’t like their update frequency, maybe consider a different operating system. In the Linux world, we have some choices as far as release cadence and update policy. You can do rolling, 6 month, 2 year LTS, etc. Some are bleeding edge and others use “proven” software and remain very stable until the next major release.
The thing is, on Linux you can see exactly what an update brings, and you can also block individual packages from updating. I doubt you'll get the same courtesy with Windows updates, it's all or nothing.
I haven't used the more recent versions of Windows on a personal machine, but I know you at least used to be able to choose which updates you wanted to apply.
Control over individual updates was abandonded halfway through Windows 7, when they found out their algorithm for evaluating updates is exponential and has trouble finishing within 24 hours. So they moved to a linear sequence of all-or-nothing bundles and diffs.
They used to offer two tracks of those: everything and security-only. I don't think they do that anymore either.
You can uninstall individual updates after the fact. Not sure this actually works to any useful degree.
Auto update is fine for home user and ensuring latest stuff, but corporate use you want updates tested and then released in a controlled manner, otherwise you chase technical issues that are hard to trace and resolve with everchanging code updates being injected
Umm… you can do that with Windows in a corporate environment.
That was my point