But there are also unofficial ways to download and install Windows Updates. WSUS Offline Update can for instance offers to download all Microsoft updates for Windows operating systems or Microsoft Office.

The software program has been updated in the past days to include the most recent Windows and Office updates, specifically the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack.

Here is how it works. You need to unpack the portable application to a local directory before you can start the UpdateGenerator.exe file. This opens the interface that you see on the screenshot above.

Operating systems are sorted by version and language. It is possible to select multiple updates at once, for instance for Windows 7 and Office 2010, or different languages.

Several options are displayed at the bottom of the screen. It is for instance possible to create ISO images that can be burned to disc, include service packs, the .NET Framework, Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Defender definitions in the update or copy updates directly to an USB stick.

The updates are downloaded via a command prompt. This may take a while depending on the updates that have been selected.

The command prompt closes after the downloads have been completed. They can then be installed directly on the local system by starting UpdateInstaller.exe from the client directory.

The available choices depend largely on the system and range from installing Internet Explorer (up to IE9 RC), the .NET Framework 4.0 to Powershell and Microsoft Security Essentials.

A click on Start begins the system update. Windows does not need an Internet connection for this since all updates have been downloaded previously to the computer system.

What are the benefits of using WSUS Offline Update? The program can save bandwidth if multiple computer systems need to be updated. Integration of all available updates for a specific version of Windows and Office make it an ideal product for offline updates, especially for computers who have no Internet connection, or unpatched computers where the user wants to update the system first before going online.

WSUS Offline Update can be downloaded from the official website.

The easiest way to launch the Windows Update applet is to click on the start orb of the operating system to launch the Control Panel that is linked from there.

The Windows Update control panel applet is located under System And Security.

The first screen displays the updates that are currently available as well as information about the most recent update checks, the last time and day updates were installed and what kind of updates are received. It is here possible to install the updates or get additional information about each update.

The left sidebar offers several options. This includes a manual check for updates, information about updates that have been previously installed in the operating system and update options. A click on change settings displays the available options to the user.

Important Updates details how updates are processed on the system. The recommended setting is to download and install updates automatically on the system. This gives the user no control over the update process. The three additional options are the following:

• Download updates but let me choose whether to install them
• Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them
• Never check for updates

The first two give the user time to check the updates before they are installed on the system.

But the options offer more than just a setting that determines if and how updates are installed.

Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates adds recommended updates to the updating process. Users who have configured updates to be installed automatically on the system would not only install important updates (usually security and stability updates) but also recommended updates which range from compatibility updates to revised help files and feature additions.

Recommended updates are otherwise (with the option disabled) displayed as available updates but installed automatically.

Who can install updates defines if all users of the computer can install updates. Standard users can not install updates if the option is disabled.

Microsoft Update determines if Windows Update will check for updates for other (installed) Microsoft products and new Microsoft software as well.

Software notifications finally determines if detailed information are displayed when new Microsoft software is available.

What are the best Windows Update settings then? I personally prefer to receive update notifications and select updates individually for download and installation. This gives me time to block updates that I do not need before they are installed on the computer. Most Windows users on the other hand may be better of with the automatic installation of updates, especially if they do not have the time or experience to determine if the update is important.

I keep all remaining options enabled. The who can install options stays enabled because I’m working on a single user system. If I had to share the PC I would disable it to avoid problems when other users are installing updates that may conflict with software or hardware running on the system.

How do you handle Windows updates? Do you install them automatically or test / check them before you install them?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Update: The Autopatcher website is no longer available. The project is still in development though, but everything is now handled on the Autopatcher forum.

You can download the latest project files from the respective forum sections. The developers have added support for Windows 7 to Autopatcher. Users who want to download all Windows 7 SP1 patches for instance need to visit the Autopatcher for Windows 7 SP1 forum to do so.

The download links are usually displayed in stickies or announcements at the top of the forum.