In recent days, Windows Update (WU) started altering files on users’ systems without displaying any dialog box to request permission. The only files that have been reportedly altered to date are nine small executables on XP and nine on Vista that are used by WU itself. Microsoft is patching these files silently, even if auto-updates have been disabled on a particular PC.

It’s surprising that these files can be changed without the user’s knowledge. The Automatic Updates dialog box in the Control Panel can be set to prevent updates from being installed automatically. However, with Microsoft’s latest stealth move, updates to the WU executables seem to be installed regardless of the settings — without notifying users.

When users launch Windows Update, Microsoft’s online service can check the version of its executables on the PC and update them if necessary. What’s unusual is that people are reporting changes in these files although WU wasn’t authorized to install anything.

ACD Systems has released version 2.0 of its ACDSee Pro software, bringing support for Windows Vista and Adobe’s Digital Negative (DNG) software to the software for importing, naming, viewing, editing, labeling, displaying and archiving image files.

The company released ACDSee Pro 2.0 Tuesday at a price of $130. The software runs only on Windows.

ACDSee Pro is geared for quick review and “development” of raw files, the higher-quality images taken directly from camera image sensors without in-camera processing. Raw processing features include recovery of details lost in underexposed or overexposed areas, conversion to black and white, and batch editing. After photographers have labeled images with metadata such as keywords and titles, that metadata can be saved either to XMP Sidecar files or embedded in DNG files.

Retailer Toys “R” Us said on Wednesday that it is expanding its efforts to inform shoppers of the latest toy recalls after a slew of Chinese-made toys were recalled this summer due to unsafe levels of lead paint.

The retailer said it has launched a toy safety Web site that includes information about its safety procedures and specific recall information. Toys “R” Us also said it is introducing an e-mail notification system for recalls and adding bilingual recall notices.

Virginia’s law banning the massive distribution of junk e-mail is an unconstitutional barrier to free speech, a lawyer for a former spammer told the state’s highest court Wednesday.

Jeremy Jaynes of Raleigh, N.C., was considered among the top 10 spammers in the world when he was charged in 2003 in the nation’s first felony case against illegal spamming. He was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison.

Prosecutors said Jaynes, using aliases and false Internet addresses, bombarded Web users with junk e-mails peddling sham products and services. He was charged in Virginia because the e-mails went through an AOL server in Loudoun County, where America Online is based.

Almost all 50 states have passed anti-spamming laws.

“There’s absolutely no question spam can be regulated,” Jaynes’ lawyer, Thomas Wolf, told the Virginia Supreme Court. “The problem with Virginia’s statute is that it attaches severe criminal penalties to unsolicited bulk e-mail of a noncommercial nature.”

Wolf said anonymous speech is protected by the First Amendment. A person anywhere in the world sending anonymous political or religious e-mails in bulk could unwittingly break the law because some of the messages almost certainly would pass through servers in Virginia, he said.