Project Dakota Full Windows XP Update CD

Just a few days ago I posted an article about How to update Windows with Offline Updates which downloaded selected updates for various Windows operating systems and Microsoft Office editions directly from Windows update servers.

Project Dakota is another way of obtaining the latest updates for Windows XP. The project can be downloaded as a CD containing all updates found on the Microsoft website for Windows XP 32-bit including Service Pack 2 and some other useful programs like Spybot Search & Destroy.

The good thing about this is that you can download the ISO, burn it to CD and install it on as many computers running Windows XP as you like. You make a few selections in the beginning but all updates are installed silently afterwards which means they require no user interaction.

The project, even though available publicly, was designed with specific use scenarios in mind. For instance, it helped users who re-installed Windows regularly and system administrators who needed to deploy Windows including all updates to multiple systems.

Since it did not require an Internet connection to retrieve all updates after installation, it was also ideal for systems without Internet access or restricted access only.

New versions of the Project Dakota ISO will be released each month which unfortunately have to be downloaded again. That's probably the biggest disadvantage of the project

There is no information on the kind of updates and software included on the CD until you download the iso and burn it. The third-party programs are the following:

• adaware
• adobereader
• apps
• avgas
• avgav
• Firefox
• flash
• java
• quicktime
• spybot
• vnc
• Bginfo
• CWShredder
• portmon
• procmon
• psexec
• psfile
• psgetsid
• psinfo
• pskill
• pslist
• psloggedon
• psloglist
• pspasswd
• psservice
• psshutdown
• pssuspend
• SmitfraudFix
• whois

Update: The Project Dakota website is still up but the project itself has been abandoned since mid 2009. A total of four different versions were released by the team, with the last one hitting public servers in July 2008.

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