content: I turned off updates a long time ago.  Just about every computer I've had updates on I've had very serious issues with that can be traced directly back to updates, in at least one case when the computer was literally a few days out of the box from the manufacturer. Unfortunately, updates do what one could easily suspect they might - they give an easily accessed back door for them and throw whatever they want in that will benefit the company.  That said, if you have your updates off, I sincerely hope that you have good security software.  IMO updates aren't really that great of a defense anyway, but the danger is real and not having updates does expose you to more risk in that sense if you aren't careful (although some argue that Microsoft has caused them more harm than malware ever did).