Windows Updates

[Bob Minton]

Maybe I am missing something here, but it seems incredibly obvious that
there
should be a tool for System Builders to have all the Windows Updates
downloadable to a local server so that, as systems are being built, we can
install them more easily than having to download them every time. In our
shop, almost every machine we build is different from the previous - we run
the gamut in hardware and use either XP Home or Pro. I don't even bother
building up preinstallation disks because of the multitude of configurations
we use. I would love to have a local server which would download all the
updates and then an installer that would install them on each PC. I looked
at WSUS but from what I could see it was not generic enough for what we
need.
I cannot possibly be the only System Builder who has this problem. Any
hints from Microsoft on this?

 

[Dave B.]

I use Autopatcher, lets you install all current updates from CD
http://www.autopatcher.com/
There is a Windows update server as well.

 

[Calvin Luttrell from Projecthunder]

Bob,

I'm not with Microsoft but I believe there are tools for IT admin to deploy updates for users. From where you are coming from you should be able to setup each machine to auto-update on it's own. Not sure if people burn computers in anymore but if you do then it will just update itself while it's there anyways. You could manually download each update and write some kind of scrip to install the updates.

e-Commerce unveiled The e-book
http://www.projectthunder.com
http://blog.projectthunder.com

 

[Rock]

Maybe I am missing something here, but it seems incredibly obvious that
there
should be a tool for System Builders to have all the Windows Updates
downloadable to a local server so that, as systems are being built, we can
install them more easily than having to download them every time. In our
shop, almost every machine we build is different from the previous - we
run
the gamut in hardware and use either XP Home or Pro. I don't even bother
building up preinstallation disks because of the multitude of
configurations
we use. I would love to have a local server which would download all the
updates and then an installer that would install them on each PC. I
looked
at WSUS but from what I could see it was not generic enough for what we
need.
I cannot possibly be the only System Builder who has this problem. Any
hints from Microsoft on this?

Post your question to the windows update newsgroup and/or the
softwareupdatesvcs newsgroup. Here is a list of MS public newsgroups.
http://www.aumha.org/nntp.htm

 

[Baloo]

Maybe I am missing something here, but it seems incredibly obvious that
there should be a tool for System Builders to have all the Windows Updates
downloadable to a local server so that, as systems are being built, we can
install them more easily than having to download them every time.

They're available in MSDN, IIRC. I know I've found them with Google without
any problem before. Try doing your own research sometime: things become
obvious with barely any effort.