JRE is written to prevent global disabling of automatic updates?
843798Nov 8 2006 — edited Apr 19 2010I am creating disk images for use with Deep Freeze, which will "freeze" the contents of the hard disk and reset it back to that default state every reboot. Because of this perpetual frozen state, I am disabling automatic updates on all of the products loaded on these workstations with the understanding that we will have to periodically update them manually or via updated disk images.
I have found JRE's automatic update behavior to be disturbing at best, it certainly does not function like any other product I've experienced. Apparently JRE saves its automatic update preferences with unique registry codes per user?
My workstations have JRE 1.5 r9 installed. If I login as user A, open the Java Control Panel, un-check the box for "Check for Updates...", the box goes away and will stay away. However, if I login as user B, the box is checked. If I create a new user C, the box is checked.
If I copy the entire user profile (including NTUSER.DAT) of User A and paste it onto User B, the preference for disabling Java does not carry over - User A will remain unchecked, User B will remain checked.
This means that every time a new user is created on a workstation and derived from the Default User NTUSER.DAT, Java will automatically default back to "Check for Updates" no matter how many times or places you have disabled it with other users. Copying User A onto Default User does not work, because Java apparently uses some unique registry key entry per user.
Sun Developers! How can I get around this? I want to set the software so that it will never check for automatic updates no matter who is using the machine.