What part of “don’t automatically install” did they forget about?

It’s been a while since I’ve spotted Microsoft dropping the ball. Here’s just one example of a nearly inexcusable gaffe, reported by windowssecrets.com.

Users who have specifically chosen not to automatically install Windows patches, are finding that the Automatic Update software is installing them anyway at shutdown. Not surprisingly, Microsoft is quick to deny there’s a problem:

The forced-install behavior has been witnessed at least three times by Windows Secrets editors, but Microsoft says its procedure for Automatic Updates hasn’t changed in the last 10 months.

Leave it to Microsoft to take liberties with the meaning of “don’t automatically install stuff.”

As detailed in the article, the only way to work around the bug is to change to “never check for updates.” Of course, this results in getting nagged about checking for updates being turned off, which is ordinarily a bad idea.