[ogman]

I'm sick and tired of having System restore destroyed by some Software Distributution Service 3.0 that installs without my knowledge. If you have not heard of this problem, please Google it. It is a well known, much discussed, but unsolved problem. Does anyone know what this thing is and why it destroys System Restore?

Finally, can someone tell me how to turn off Windows Update completely and forever? I do not want programs that install on my machine without my knowledge. I need a way too make sure that this program never runs on my machine again.

Thanks. Now off to do yet another SDS 3.0 reformat. Linux and Mac are starting to look more and more like great options.

[smax013]

ogman said:

I'm sick and tired of having System restore destroyed by some Software Distributution Service 3.0 that installs without my knowledge. If you have not heard of this problem, please Google it. It is a well known, much discussed, but unsolved problem. Does anyone know what this thing is and why it destroys System Restore?

Finally, can someone tell me how to turn off Windows Update completely and forever? I do not want programs that install on my machine without my knowledge. I need a way too make sure that this program never runs on my machine again.


Thanks. Now off to do yet another SDS 3.0 reformat. Linux and Mac are starting to look more and more like great options.

Supposedly, if you go into the Automatic Updates control panel and select "Turn off Automatic Updates", it should be COMPLETELY off and not download anything without notifying you (at least until you go do a manual update). If you do the "Notify me but..." or "Download updates for..." options, in general it will not automatically install stuff, but apparently it will do somethings automatically still without asking or notifying you. This was all per an article that I read after all the hub-bub from a "secret" update that ran in August sometime.



You could try using a firewall to block Update's access. I don't know if that will work or not. I suspect that Micro$oft still has a "backdoor" as the secret update in August did not trigger my firewall.



The only way than I can be completely sure to not have updates is to not connect the computer to the Internet....but I suspect that carries more disadvantages than advantages. :-)

[ogman]

Well, looks like it wasn't Microsoft's fault at all. I turned of the setting in Norton Internet Security that protects the Norton files, and System Restore worked fine. I wonder how many other people have had this problem for the same reason. In case someone else needs help with this, here is the fix (at least in NIS 2008):



Open NIS

Under "Settings," click "Auto-Protect" and "Configure."

Under "General Options," uncheck "Turn on protection for Norton products."

System Restore should run now.

After you restore, you should probably turn the protection of Norton products back on, since a lot of malware tries to turn off your security software.

[mphenterprises]

Hi Smax and Ogman. Personally, I use, "Notify me but don't automatically download or install them." This way, I get two notifications:

- There are updates available for download

- The download is complete and ready to install

"Turn off Automatic Updates" should work in this case; however, as another forum member found out the hard way, Software Distribution Service is something that Microsoft installs behind the scenes. To this day, no one has been able to determine from where this file comes. Unfortunately, the search feature of the new forum layout is not 100% so it is hard to find the other Discussion that referred to this same situation.

Ogman, I would say follow the initial suggestion that Smax provided to completely shut off Automatic Updates. If that does not work, check back with us and we can see what else we can try.