I presume the first thing you'll do on your next Apple machine is disabling updates.

Don't forget to also disable auto-updates in Chrome/Firefox, since they are enabled by default.

I think the gripe was less about auto-updates than the fact that the OS allegedly un-set OP's attempt at opting out.

Forgetting certain settings is annoying. Forgetting that I want to manually control when my computer downloads gigs of data to apply a patch that- in recent times especially- may very well brick my system... well, I can certainly understand where OP's frustration comes in.

Even at one of my jobs a few years back (which was about 50/45/5 apple / windows / linux shop) we were cautioned against applying major updates from apple within the first month or so of their releases given past issues.

I wouldn't call disabling the Windows Update service as "setting an option" that it's later forgotten. It's more of a thing an inexperienced user does by mistake while messing around. Windows does things behind you back, like magically restore system files if you manage to delete them, and so on, in an effort to keep running. But of course, some people are like "I deleted those files on purpose, so stay the damn out of my lawn"

But I do get your point, and Windows is indeed lacking an option to fully disable updates, even if it does have an option to defer major updates by up to an year.

I definitely understand the reasoning behind automatic updates, especially when it comes to keeping up with security patches.

Some rare times, some of us need finer grained control over these things, though, and it probably shouldn't be called "disable" if the OS will re-enable it at will, without notification.

It's one thing to protect the user from themselves, and another thing altogether to lie to them. It's (generally) the latter that will get people upset.

Windows also collects what pirated software you run and - on buisness success sells you out to the vendor of said software. Guess the crack did not work..

Not that I don’t believe you, but I’m gonna need a citation for that

Apple has the grace not to force a reboot on you in the middle of games, presentations, movies, etc.

Yep, they basically keep your asking once in a while “are you ready?” and let you dismiss it as much as you want until finally you click “yeah, go ahead”.

Pro: they ask

Con: they ask

Still, “how about tonight?” Is preferable to “right now, conference call be damned “

You can go into your storage listing and delete the update from there. Then it won’t nag you anymore

I don't mind it nagging me once a day, I appreciate updates. I just want to do it at my own pace.

The reason I disable Windows updates is because it eats up A LOT of computing power. When you notice that few minutes after turning on your laptop fans are working like crazy for 30, 40 minutes, you know there is something wrong. It's better to just remember to update your system once a month and manually turn on and off the update option. But now you can't even do that. The moment I hear fans are working like crazy I know that Windows somehow overwrought my setting and the 'updates' are running in the background. Cheers!