Samsung has been disabling Home windows updates by the use of an executable record, Disable_Winduwsupdate.exe, that is a part of its SW Replace device.

The problem got here to mild on Tuesday, when Microsoft MVP Patrick Barker revealed a weblog submit about his discovery when serving to a consumer who used to be having issues.

It gave the impression that Home windows Replace stored getting disabled randomly, however after the usage of auditpol.exe and registry safety auditing, Barker found out that Disable_Windowsupdate.exe used to be the perpetrator.

The executable creates a scheduled activity that runs at each logon to make sure that Home windows Replace is disabled, Barker mentioned.

Its virtual certificates is signed by way of Samsung.

Samsung reportedly mentioned it created the executable to forestall motive force updating issues of equipment corresponding to USB 3.0 ports.

That may be a sound reason why, mentioned Eric Smith, a senior analyst at Technique Analytics.

“Home windows could have an replace for a motive force, and the OEM could have updates for that motive force, and customers won’t know which the precise one is,” he instructed the E-Trade Instances. “however I believe if that used to be the problem, Samsung would have the ability to paintings with Microsoft in the back of the scenes.”

Disabling Disable_Winduwsupdate.exe

It sounds as if to be nearly unimaginable to do away with the executable.

Uninstalling SW Replace manually does now not forestall its motion, and the Samsung folder will stay in ProgramData.

Samsung reportedly contended that it used to be offering customers with the choice to make a choice if and once they sought after to replace the Home windows device of their merchandise.


This is conceivable, as a result of some OEMs are involved in regards to the have an effect on of Home windows 10 on their consumers, Smith mentioned.

With Home windows 10, Microsoft’s going to pressure updates, and customers must restart their computer systems very in a while after the updates are put in, he identified. Additional, Microsoft will come to a decision when the updates are despatched out.

“There’s fear in sure markets that should you’ve were given intermittent or dial-up carrier, otherwise you’re operating it off a cellular hotspot the place you’re paying by way of the gigabyte, having Home windows 10 on PCs may just lead to top Web expenses to pay for updates customers may now not in a different way set up,” Smith famous.

“It may well be that Samsung’s experimenting with this executable as some way of managing the enjoy,” he speculated.

Nonetheless, the trouble used to be “ham-handed,” he stated.

Anger at Samsung

Maximum responders to Barker’s submit had it in for Samsung.

“Just right to understand,” wrote Roman Patent. “I will be able to be advising all of our consumers to stick smartly clear of Samsung’s PC merchandise.”

Then again, the SW Replace record downloaded by way of Thai Nguyen doesn’t have the executable, and “it gave the impression of the device has only recently been evolved as in model 1.0, so they could have considered one thing once they had been doing this.”

Samsung didn’t reply to our request to remark for this tale.

What’s at Stake

The executable “may just lead to shopper teams red-flagging Samsung merchandise as a result of this tradition places customers in danger,” steered Rob Enderle, essential on the Enderle Crew.


Additional, the motion may well be a contravention of Microsoft’s OEM license and “will paintings towards Microsoft’s efforts to create an acceptably secure Home windows consumer atmosphere,” he instructed the E-Trade Instances. Microsoft is “most probably by no means glad that Samsung has achieved this.”

Executives from the 2 corporations reportedly are discussing the problem.

Supply Via https://www.technewsworld.com/tale/samsung-jams-up-windows-security-updates-82217.html