Microsoft Corp. says it's reconsidering how it updates a key piece of Windows plumbing after a newsletter reported that the company delivered fixes over the Internet silently -- not telling PC users even when they had set the operating system to be notified.

The company "should have been clearer in our explanation of this process earlier in the game," wrote Nick White, a Windows product manager, in a post on the Windows Vista blog.

The dust-up involves the Update program, which checks for and downloads Windows fixes over the Internet. Users can set the program to download and install those fixes automatically, or they can exercise more control by setting it to alert them and let them choose whether to download or install Windows patches when they're available.

'Silent' Windows Update Raises Questions [seattlepi.nwsource.com]