The biggest feature of the new WordPress 3.7 release is automatic updates for minor versions (from 3.7.1 to 3.7.2, for example). Since these updates usually close important security holes, automatic background updates are a big and, in my view, very sensible new achievement for WordPress.

There are of course cases where automatic updates in the background are not wanted, or in rare cases not possible (the Background Update Tester plugin tells you whether your installation can handle them). Then Andrew Nacin’s guide on the Make WordPress Core blog shows how to disable automatic updates with a constant in wp-config.php (see steps 3 and 4 of the guide).

Translated from the German original of 27 October 2013.