of course windows update sends them a list of installed components and software on your PC - how else do they know what updates your PC needs. For example - if I don't have a program installed on my PC - am I going to want an update for that program - no - I'm not - does that mean they are spying on me - that's a matter of opinion. Of course I'm pro Microsoft - but I don't work for them or anything - I just hate seeing them get beaten up all them time. If you don't like how they run things - don't use microsoft - if you don't want to quit using them - and think the above process is spying - then don't do auto updates - but good luck having things run smoothly.

Before anyone beats me up - yes I read the article - the whole article - there is nothing new here - and the part of them being able to block you out of their website - I work for a bank - I can also block anyone's access to our website - and have a program that tells me statistics from each IP that logs on to our website - which OS and so forth - which browser - so I guess I'm spying on them as well?