First of One wrote:
Automatic Updates is one of the first things I disable after installing
Windows, along with about 20 other useless Windows Services.

Me too, but I installed MSSE on XP and Win7 today and Microsoft thought
it would be a good idea to turn auto-updates back on without notifying
me it would. Soon turned it off again though. I know when to check for
updates and I even turn off auto-updates in AV software which might not
be a good idea for some people but I manually have it check for updates
daily.