Re: Why does wuauclt.exe run at startup?

John Corliss <jcorliss@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:12hqt7sn8nf749c@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

Thanks for that info.

Two things I'd like to mention though:

1. I have (as I mentioned) autoupdate turned off. Thus, checking to
see if an update has been installed is not necessary. Besides, when
you go to the Microsoft update site, the process is "download and
install", not "download and install later", unless I'm missing
something.

You are missing something. It's making sure that a) the last update
session finished downloading eerything, and b) that everything that was
downloaded was indeed installed.

What happens if your connection goes down in the middle of an update?

Plus, wuauclt is more than auto update. It needs to start to see the
status of the auto-update switch and to see if there is an alternate
source for updates. I use WSUS. Auto-update is truned off, but wuauclt
still checks, sees that updates need to come from WSUS and then checks
with it.



2. On my system, I have created a power switch for the cable modem (a
Motorola Surfboard) so that I can turn it off whenever I like. There's
something about cable modems not (usually) having an on-off switch
that I find Orwellianly 1984ish in the extreme. I'm aware that the
modem has a panic button on the top that allows me to go offline
instantly, but the modem is still powered up. Since I didn't design
and build the thing, I have no way of knowing if certain inbound
connections are severed. However, when I turn that modem's power off,
there is absolutely NO WAY that I'm online!

NewScience wrote:
If you use an application called FileMon, www.sysinternals.com, you
would see that it is checking your system and verifying that all
updates downloaded have been installed. If some updates have been
downloaded on last session, but have not been installed yet,
WUAUCLT.exe, will display the Update Shield in the System Tray and
prompt for installation.

If a download was interrupted on last session, it tries to detect if
there is a current network connection, in order to finish the
download(s).

So why does it stay on so long once it detects that there's no
download to finish? In fact, why should it try to detect a connection
if it determines that there is no incomplete download?

Naw, this whole thing stinks to high heaven to me.

Microsoft is slowly moving the entire network operations of the OS to
DSL/Cable/... - in other words - non-dialup. This is causing major
problems for the many people out there still operating with a dial-up
modem card, since the underlying network operations is slowly
removing the detection of a close network connection.

Under DSL/Cable,... you don't have to worry about Close on Last
Connection, since there is none.

I loath the fact that I'm forced to have to install networking
software on my *single-user, non-LAN home computer*. It's bloat that
just opens the door for security and performance problems.

"John Corliss" <jcorliss@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:12hq3qkdqbgi235@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I'm running XP Home SP2 and my system is configured so that I don't
use automatic update. I don't even have the icon in the tray or
allow my system to check for available updates. Instead, I prefer to
periodically check for updates myself and install them when they're
available.

I don't like anything happening to my computer without my say-so.

What I've noticed is that in spite of my desire that Windows Update
not run automatically, the wuauclt service starts anyway, about 30
seconds after login. I notice that this process doesn't show in the
standard Task Manager but *does* show when I run Sysinternals'
"Process Explorer" (note that Microsoft bought Sysinternals out
recently.)

The process runs for awhile and then quietly goes away.

What is this process doing? Is it trying to call home for some
reason? <paranoia>Is it alerting Microsoft that I'm online so that
they can hook me into some kind of "supercomputer" array and steal
processing cycles?</paranoia>

My understanding is that I can't block it with my firewall if I want
to be able to install updates.

So again, can anybody explain why wuauclt.exe runs at startup even
though I have tried to configure my computer so that it doesn't?


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