Autopatcher is a portable software program that will display a list of available releases upon startup with updates for Autopatcher and the current operating system preselected by default. It is possible to include additional software programs or operating systems in the download.

A click on the next button will initiate the downloads of all patches and additions that have been released for those programs and operating systems.

Downloads can take some time depending on the selected packages and the speed of the Internet connection. The total amount of Megabytes to be downloaded are displayed in the downloader.

All files to patch the computer system are placed in the directory of the Autopatcher Updater after the download. A click on the file autopatcher.exe in the main directory will initiate the update process.

Changes in this release are fixed incompatibilities with Kaspersky security products and several minor changes to the interface.

The new version of Autopatcher Updater can be downloaded from the official Autopatcher website.

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But let me give you a brief description of Autopatcher before I continue. Autopatcher queries the Microsoft update server and downloads all patches and updates from that server to your computer. When I say all I mean all for the operating system or software (like Microsoft Office) that you have selected.

This procedure has several benefits over automatic installations. All patches and updates are downloaded to the users computer and can be used to update several computers, even those without Internet or network access. It is furthermore possible to select the updates that should be installed on the computer and those that should not be.

You begin the process by downloading the Autopatcher Updater from the Autopatcher website. Unpack it to your hard drive and execute the file. A list with possible operating systems and applications will be shown and some of them will be preselected.

Make sure you do keep the Autopatcher Updater and Autopatcher Engine entries checked. You can then make your selection from various Windows editions, languages and applications. Available languages are currently English, Italian and Portuguese.

A click on Next will download all files and patches to your computer directly from the Microsoft servers. The process finishes quickly and will place a file called autopatcher.exe in the root folder of the directory. Start that file afterwards which will load a list of available patches and updates for your operating system.

Items are sorted by critical and recommend updates as well as updated components and Registry tweaks. Already installed patches are marked blue while those that have not been installed yet have a black font color. Simply check the updates that you want to install and click the next button which will start the installation process.

I did not encounter any errors, freezes or even crashes during my tests which is definitely an improvement since the last version that I tried.

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Autopatcher has been closed down by Microsoft. There is an alternative, a great one that can be used instead. It is called c’t Offline Updater. It supports Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, windows Server 2003, 64-bit editions of XP and Server 2003 as well as Windows Vista. Besides the operating systems it also supports Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007. As you can see from the screenshot below lots of different languages are supported as well.

The user has the option to exclude service packs and to create iso images, either one CD iso for every operating system or Office edition or one DVD iso that contains all the patches. A click on start begins the download process which can take some time. When the download finishes you find the created iso(s) in the /iso subdirectory.

You can then burn the iso and start it directly in Windows. Several options are presented when you execute UpdateInstaller.exe. The script asks if you want to create backups, install Internet Explorer 7, automatically reboot and recall or show the log file.

A click on start begins the update process. The Offline Update is an excellent way to download all patches for your operating system in one go.

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The Autopatcher team was busy and have releases an early beta of a software they call Autopatcher Updater. The process of obtaining the updates has been changed. The Autopatcher Updater lists the latest updates for the operating system and Microsoft Office and downloads the files from Microsoft and Autopatcher afterwards.

This is a early beta version and there is not much information yet on the process but it looks like that Autopatcher Updater is contacting the Autopatcher domain requesting a file and this information is then used to connect to Microsoft Download and download the update in question.

The main Autopatcher Updater interface:

The download window:

When the updates are downloaded you need to run autopatcher.exe which will then give you the option to install some or any of the updates that have been downloaded.

Since this is a beta some problems emerge every now and then in particular a Runtime Error bug for some users which will probably resolved in the next release.

Nevertheless I’m glad that the team is back and it will be only a matter of time until they add more comfort and options to the updating process.

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It is also important to note that it is theoretically possible to attack an unpatched system when it visits the Microsoft website to download the patches which would not be the case if an autopatcher file would have been available. (for more than 1 computer, that is) Several users did not like the fact that they had to connect to a Microsoft server to download the patches because of privacy issues.

Microsoft requested an immediate takedown of the Autopatcher download pages with the reasoning that they want to make their downloads available only from their servers and from nowhere else. It is however kinda strange that it took them four years to request the takedown and many users fear that this has something to do with WGA enforcements.

The Neowin admin who was contacted asked the same question and received the following answer:

I asked the representative if Windows Genuine Advantage had anything to do with it and he categorically told me this was not the case, he added that Windows Update for pre-Vista versions of Windows can now be accessed using Firefox and that the concern at Microsoft had more to do with the possible malicious code that could be redistributed with certified Microsoft updates.

This is a sad day indeed.

Read More:

Official Autopatcher Announcement
Neowin Forum Thread
Autopatcher Torrent Downloads

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Versions for Vista and Windows Server 2003 64-bit will follow shortly thereafter. Let me explain the Autopatcher concept with just a few words. Instead of connecting to Microsoft to either use the automatic updates or to download the patches manually you can download Autopatcher instead which contains all official patches released by Microsoft.

The advantages are of course that you can apply all relevant patches at once, have total control over which patches are applied and do not have to connect to a Microsoft server at all to download and apply the patches. This is also a great way for admins or users with more than one operating system to download the files once and execute it on as many computers as needed.

The difference between core and update patches are that the core files contain all patches from the beginning to the current month while the updates only contain the patches that were released by Microsoft since the last Autopatcher version, which usually means patches of the last 30 days.

source: Autopatcher Homepage

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As always core and update packages are available. The core package contains all patches from the beginning to that month while the update packages contain only the updates of a month. If you never used autopatcher before you should start with the core update which is currently to May 2007 and apply the June and July updates afterwards.

This way you can efficiently patch your system. You do get a choice during installation and may uncheck several patches that do not affect your system. To make things easier, here are the links for the XP updates: May 2007 core, June 2007 update, July 2007 update.

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This is in my opinion the best and easiest way to patch your operating system if you do not want to use the automatic update feature and do not want to connect to servers from Microsoft at all. Normally so called core versions and full versions are released but due to the changed at the original Autopatcher website only core versions are available.

Core means that only patches of a certain month are offered while full means that the package contains all patches that have been released for that operating system.

It is possible to currently download the core June patches for Windows Vista 32 and 64 bit and Windows 2000 / XP 64-bit only.

A core release for XP 32-bit will surely follow soon after.

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The Autopatcher Windows Vista and Windows XP / Windows 2003 updates for May have been released a couple of days ago and can be downloaded from the official site either as torrents or from website mirrors. I would suggest to download the torrents because it helps save bandwidth for everyone.

The Vista release includes three new critical updates, about 20 recommended updates and three add-ons that have been updated. One nice feature of Autopatcher is that you can download a full version that contains all patches released or just the updated version that contains only those that have been updated since the last release.

Releases are published monthly with the exception of the Windows XP and 2000 versions that have not been updated in the last two months. A new release will be coming soon and I will let you know when it can be downloaded.

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Fortunately for him there is indeed an easy method to upgrade Windows XP without contacting a Microsoft server at all. This of course is only half the truth, some software products like IE7 and Windows Media Player 11 contact Microsoft during installation. You can either use one of the techniques described in my posts to avoid this or choose to not install those programs.

The current Autopatcher file size is about 350 megabytes in size for Windows XP and can be downloaded from the Autopatcher homepage. I suggest you use a torrent or a mirror to ease the load on the main servers. You also find versions for Windows 2000 and 2003.

Download the full Autopatcher release for your language and after that the smaller update for January. Install both on your computer and run the application afterwards. The difference between full and lite versions is that some third party products (e.g. Java from Sun) have been removed from the package, all Microsoft patches are still inside.

Autopatcher scans your system and displays a list of patches that could be installed. The following categories exist:

1. Microsoft Windows – Critital Updates
2. Microsoft Windows – Recommended Updates
3. Microsoft Windows – Updated Components
4. Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage
5. Windows Addons
6. Registry Tweaks

The first three are automatically (partially) selected. I would advise to check the patches manually and remove everything that seems unnecessary. Click on Update after you have made your selections and Autopatcher will update your system.

Autopatcher is great if you have to update more than one operating system. Instead of downloading all the patches several times you do it once. Great time saver.

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