After the MSBlaster worm spread like wildfire, Microsoft execs are considering making "Windows Update" an automatic process. Naturally, with the company's track record of releasing some patches that cause more problems than they fix, such an idea isn't likely to float well. But according to Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Microsoft's security business unit, the company is "looking very seriously" at a version of Windows update that installs patches automatically, unless the user specifies otherwise.

"The feedback we got when we did XP a few years ago was 'I don't want Microsoft automatically putting things onto my machine,' " Nash said. "What we're finding now is that through a combination of the availability of broadband and customers wanting to stay up to date with security patches, and, most importantly, considering the kinds of threats out there now, that customers want us to keep them up to date automatically -- not just by downloading the patches for them but installing them as well."