MS Updates

Lee H

Hi

I spend a lot of time updating machines with MS updates, the images for each PC are on another partition so when i downlaod them to the C drive it is usually in need of many critical updates.

Is it possible to downlaod every update and install locally thus reducing the downlaod time

Lee H

Sie

Have you looked at WUS (Windows Update Service)?

Dont know what you work with so that would be my first suggestion.

jescab

WSUS.............

sthomas

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/updateservices/default.mspx

Sie

WSUS.............

What he said.

To busy here to check typos. Really to busy to be writing this.....

Doh!

Lee H

our network does not have a SUS or WSUS server, everytime i re-image a PC with the image thats on the other partition it is very out of date so a manual install of critical updates is needed evrey time, this process has got to be quicker or it does not get done, which is not the option i want to go for

any ideas would be great

sthomas

It sounds like you need to create a new image with all of the current updates installed. You can do this by using RIS, Ghost, or g4u which is opensource.

blargoe

You should talk with your network administrator about getting a WSUS server implemented or at least configuring group policy to force the computers to download all the updates at a given time, install, and reboot to keep them up to date.

With Vista and Longhorn comes a way to service OS images while they are offline, you can install updates and drivers... but I haven't read into it enough to determine whether the offline servicing will work with XP using the new deployment technology.

mrhaun03

I agree with the WSUS option. It's not difficult to set up and would save a lot of your time.

garv221

blargoe wrote:

You should talk with your network administrator about getting a WSUS server implemented or at least configuring group policy to force the computers to download all the updates at a given time, install, and reboot to keep them up to date.

With Vista and Longhorn comes a way to service OS images while they are offline, you can install updates and drivers... but I haven't read into it enough to determine whether the offline servicing will work with XP using the new deployment technology.

Yes, be a hero and suggest it. It is free and you don't need a king server to run it.

Lee H

is it possible for me to individually download each update and configure each of the PC's to use a specific location on our server to get the updates, can you specify a location in the LGPO maybe a network share containing all the updates?

tibul

well basically WSUS does that exact same thing downloads the updates to the server then distributes them to the machines that you want to update, WSUS is free to download and easy enough to set up.

Lee H

people keep mentioning WSUS but we dont have a WSUS server, nor will we have one in the near furure, can i download all MS updates and install them manually from a specif location on the server?

wirerat

http://www.autopatcher.com/

sprkymrk

Lee H wrote:

people keep mentioning WSUS but we dont have a WSUS server, nor will we have one in the near furure, can i download all MS updates and install them manually from a specif location on the server?

Sort of... First you have to FIND all the updates and manually download them. Then make sure the right ones get installed to the correct OS, version, and SP level. Additionally, if you try to install an update for Media Player (for example) that is older than the currently installed Media Player patch (they do release the same patch with updates at times) you can easliy break things.

You can write a batch file that tells the computer to silently install all updates in a particular location like this:

net use S: \\servername\sharename
for %%F in (S:\*.exe) do %%F -m -z

This assumes you have downloaded all your updates to a server share. The -z and -m switch won't work on all updates, such as IE stuff. Not sure about Office updates either, but for most Windows updates it will work to do an unattended install without a reboot. You used to have to end the batch file with qchain.exe to make sure the updates were applied in the correct order in case of conflicting patch levels, but that hasn't been necessary for a couple of years now.

Slowhand

Lee H wrote:

people keep mentioning WSUS but we dont have a WSUS server, nor will we have one in the near furure, can i download all MS updates and install them manually from a specif location on the server?

I'm curious to know why your company won't allow you to download WSUS and install it on an existing server, in order to provide you with the exact functionality you need?

blargoe

Lee H wrote:

people keep mentioning WSUS but we dont have a WSUS server, nor will we have one in the near furure, can i download all MS updates and install them manually from a specif location on the server?

No (or not easily), and it's not worth the trouble if it were possible. Just create a new image every so often that is up to date, and configure the PC's to get updates from Microsoft Update, install and reboot automatically. That, or a WSUS or another SERVER solution will save you the most time. What you are trying to do will only create more headache and waste time.

It really doesn't take that much of your Internet bandwidth to do the automatic updating because of they way that polling is staggered and the client downloads and applies the deltas instead of the whole file.