Ah, it's just a default setting that comes shipped in the O/S.
Imagine the alternative of getting no updates at all. LOL! I think then people would complain security problems
Of course, and maybe it IS to our advantage to have it automatically update, but my Norton 360 easily allows me to decide WHEN a backup is going to occurr. Therefore, it doesn't happen at 7 a.m. when I am on the computer but at 1 a.m. when I am not.
Adobe is another one that wants to update all the time, but at least it pops up with a suggestion that I do that...I'm just suggesting that MS should make THAT their default...give me the choice up front instead of buried somewhere.
MS (or Apple) is like eBay...what other choice do we have? Well, there is LINUX, etc.