South-Korean multinational company, Samsung will
release a software patch for its PCs “within a few days” that has been
disabling Windows Update.
The conglomerate company has issued a statement on Friday assuring
its users that it would correct the problem, which was initially discovered earlier this
week, in the coming days.
The spokesperson of the Samsung wrote in the statement, “Samsung
has a commitment to security and we continue to value our partnership with
Microsoft. We will be issuing a patch through the Samsung Software Update
notification process to revert back to the recommended automatic Windows Update
settings within a few days.
“Samsung remains committed to providing a trustworthy user
experience and we encourage customers with product questions or concerns to
contact us directly at 1-800-SAMSUNG FREE,” the statement read.
Patrick Barker, Microsoft researcher, shared on his blog
that he discovered a file named Disable_Windowsupdate.exe after assisting a
user in troubleshooting his Samsung computer. With this program installed,
Windows users will have to manually install Microsoft's patches to update their
computers.
He found out that with Disable_Windowsupdate.exe, even if
Samsung users already re-enabled the "Install updates automatically"
option on Windows Update, once the computer rebooted, the program will
inconveniently return the Windows system to manual updates.
The researcher then reported the flaw to Samsung's support
team. However, the company explained that it had to create a program that would
prevent Windows Update from overwriting Samsung's default hardware drivers such
as those for its USB 3.0 ports.
The spokesperson said in the statement that in order to
satisfy their consumer, they are providing option to choose if and when they
want to update the Windows software on their products.
Although, it has not been disclosed that how many Samsung
computers were affected by the Disable_Windowsupdate.exe, it has programmed to
work on all computers with Windows XP and higher, across different language
settings.
Some reports mentioned that Samsung users have been complaining about this issue since April.
Some reports mentioned that Samsung users have been complaining about this issue since April.