The portable software program will display a list of supported operating systems (Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008) and dozens of supported languages.

A second tab contains the same options for Microsoft’s Office suites (Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007). Below that selection are several additional options that include the following:

• Excluding Service Packs
• Verifying downloads
• Including the .net Framework 3.5 SP1
• ISO image creation per selected product and language or per selected language
• Copying updates to USB

Offline Update can be downloaded directly from the (German) homepage of the software developer. The software itself uses an English language interface.

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There are several situations where an ISO image with all Windows XP updates might come in handy. It is for instance possible to install Windows XP updates to a computer system prior to going online with the system. Another reason is easier distribution. Think of multiple computers in a computer network. Instead of downloading and installing the Windows XP updates multiple times (once for every computer system) they could be downloaded once in form of the PatchMate XP iso and applied to all computer systems.

The download and installation is also faster. Users who downloaded and installed updates from Windows Update in the past have most likely noticed how slow the downloads and updates would be commenced even on modern computer systems with broadband connections.

Patchmate XP (via Technix Update) can be downloaded as an ISO image from the developer’s website. It can then be burned to CD or DVD to be executed right from within the Windows XP operating system. The user interaction has been reduced to a minimum.

Patchmate XP will detect the Windows XP Service Pack and install the Windows XP updates based on the detection. Only post service Pack 3 updates would for example be installed on a computer system running Windows XP Service Pack 3.

The patches will be installed even if they are already present on the computer system. A restart is required at the end of the update.

An option to exclude updates from being applied would be helpful to cope with scenarios where updates cause problems on a computer system. Another useful feature would be the creation of a system restore point prior to installing the Windows XP updates.

Windows XP Updates can also be applied by programs like Offline Update, Autopatcher or Windows Updates Downloader.

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Windows Update can cause problems on some computer systems. The first and probably most common problem that is encountered is the error message “The site cannot continue because one or more of these Windows services is not running” (read: Windows Update Error services not running for a detailed explanation). This message is caused by several Windows Services that need to be set to specific parameters for Windows Update to work.

One of these services that are required for Windows Update to function properly is Bits, the Background Intelligent Transfer Service. Bits can cause additional problems on some computer systems especially after uninstalling software programs like antivirus or security programs or after an infection and removal of computer viruses and other malicious software. Most users will experience the following: Bits is not running on the computer system and the attempt to start it will result in an error message. The error messages can vary and it is probably a good idea to perform a search for the error on the Internet.

Another solution is to use the Fix Windows Update program that has been specifically designed to fix problems with Bits and Windows Update. Here are the instructions on how to use the program:

• First click “Open Services Window”.
• After the window has been opened, find a Service called “BITS” and see if it is running.
• If it is, this program cannot help you, and you can exit the program.
• If it is not running, close the Services window and click on “Start BITS”.
• If it is successful, this program has helped you and you can close the program.
• If starting the BITS fails, continue with other 2 buttons.

Start by clicking on the Phase 1 button. A popup will appear if the program was able to fix and start Bits. If this did not work continue by pressing the Phase 2 button. This will take longer and should result in a popup containing the information that Bits started running again. There might be cases where the Fix Windows Update program is not successful in restoring the Windows Update functionality. The only possible solution in this case is research on the Internet to find the cause of the problem.

Users who are desperate to update their Windows operating system can use the following tools to do so even if Bits and Windows Update are not working: Windows Offline Update, Update Windows Without Microsoft or Autopatcher.

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The security bulletin resolves three vulnerabilities in Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol which could allow remote code execution on affected systems. An attacker could run programs, create new user accounts and view, change or delete data on the computer system. It is interesting to note that Windows 7 is affected as well even though it is not mentioned in the security bulletin.

The security vulnerability would be rated as moderate for the upcoming operating system which is why Microsoft will not provide a patch at the current time (They chose to only patch critical security vulnerabilities immediately). A patch will be released with the next public release of Windows 7.

Patches can be applied as usual through the various official update channels.

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Some applications that check for software updates on a Windows system have already been mentioned in the past here at Ghacks but none of them did check the installed drivers for updates. Radar Sync, discovered at the Download Squad website, checks both the installed applications and drivers for updates.

Radar Sync relies on a database that contains information about applications and drivers which means that it will not detect all programs and devices on a system. The scan itself is well done and catapults Radar Sync to the top of the programs that check for updates. The scan is quick and the button to download all listed updates comes in very handy.

The updates can be installed right from the application after downloading them. A click on Actions > Install Update is normally sufficient to install the update. Radar Sync recommends to create a system restore point before installing applications which can be initiated right from the recommendation dialog.

One download failed on my system and a click on the Actions > Get More Info link allowed me to report a bad download link. Downloads are directly from the manufacturers and developers websites which reduces the chance that a download contains malicious files.

I cannot really say much about the detection database because of my new computer. Six updates does not look like much but I do not have that many applications installed yet. One last thing that bothered me was that it told me that there was a new version of Opera. I have the latest Opera 9.5 beta installed and it told me that the version 9.27 was the latest. This means that it did not detect that my Opera version was newer than the one recommended.

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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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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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