As if bloatware on our computers and smartphones weren’t already enough, Samsung has breached a new level, as far as forced bloatware in laptops is concerned (yea, this is probably beyond Lenovo’s Superfish). The company’s new software is reportedly disabling Windows Update on its computers.
If you own a Samsung computer and haven’t uninstalled their bloatware, there’s a chance you’re missing out on security and stability fixes from Microsoft. Affected users can’t simply jump into services.msc and re-enable the Windows Update service to get the files updating either. If they try, it just gets disabled again.
The culprit, as you might have guessed already, appears to be Samsung’s own system update app. It pulls down a piece of companion software called, suspiciously enough, disable_windowsupdate.exe. It’s signed with a Samsung certificate and that’s evidence enough it’s bloatware — even though it behaves more like a piece of drive-by malware.
It was Microsoft MVP Barker who discovered the updater getting disabled while helping out a user with an issue.
Samsung describes its update tool as follows:
You can install relevant software for your computer easier and faster using SW Update. The SW Update program helps you install and update your software and driver easily.
Apparently Samsung thinks disabling Windows update might be one eureka of an idea since users could end up with incompatibility issue.
Windows Update serves various essential security functions on PCs and is something that can’t be done away with. Samsung needs to look into the issue affecting users immediately.
UPDATE :
Both Samsung and Microsoft have come out with official statements after Barker contacted Samsung support for the same. “We are aware of Mr. Barker’s claim regarding Windows 8.1 updates on our computers. We take security concerns very seriously and we are working with Microsoft to address this matter,” a Samsung rep said.
Windows Update remains a critical component of our security commitment to our customers.
a Microsoft spokesperson told VentureBeat.
We do not recommend disabling or modifying Windows Update in any way as this could expose a customer to increased security risks. We are in contact with Samsung to address this issue.
Poor Samsung ! Didn’t you guys learn something from your peer Lenovo’s Superfish incident ?
