Update Manager for Windows wumgr Review
Update Manager for Windows, short wumgr, is a free portable program for Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system to regain control of updating.
Microsoft changed updating in the company's Windows 10 operating system by removing some control over the update process and making updates more automatic than before.
While it is still possible to delay feature updates, install optional updates, or switch over to manual updates on Windows 10, installing updates on Windows 10 machines is not a very pleasant experience if Windows Update is used.
Windows administrators who want more control can use third-party tools like the excellent Windows Update MiniTool.
Update Manager for Windows
Update Manager for Windows looks like a fork of Windows Update MiniTool. The interfaces look almost identical but there are some differences when it comes to the provided functionality. Windows Update MiniTool has not been updated since December 2016.
Note: The wumgr project page on GitHub offers no information on its relationship with Windows Update MiniTool
The application requires elevation to run and uses the Windows Update Agent API to display updates, identify missing and installed updates, and provide other update management functionality.
The interface lists the update history on start. There you find listed all updates that were installed on the device including the state of the installation.
A click on "Windows Update", "Installed Updates", or "Hidden Updates" switches to these listings instead. Windows Update displays available updates, installed updates those that are installed, and hidden updates those that are blocked from installation.
You do need to activate the check for updates scan first to populate the listings.
The program displays each update that it found, its size and status, the publication date, and KB article ID.
Select some or all updates in one of the lists and then one of the available action buttons, e.g. to install all selected updates in one go, hide the updates so that they are not installed, or uninstall updates that are installed already.
One of the main advantages of wumgr over Windows Update is the flexibility that it brings to the table. While it cannot break up feature updates or cumulative updates into individual updates, it is giving administrators control over all updates similarly to how updating works on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 devices.
Options to customize the entire process and change certain features are displayed in the lower left corner.
The following options are provided at the time of writing:
- Change the update server / method, e.g. from Windows Update to Microsoft Update.
- Enable offline mode which downloads wsusscn2.cab for offline update management.
- Enable the manual downloading and installing of Windows updates.
- Include superseded updates in the update listing.
- Enable background functionality.
- Enable "always run as administrator" functionality.
- Block access to Windows Update servers on the device.
- Disable automatic updates.
- Disable Store updates.
- Include Driver updates.
- Hide Windows Update options in the Settings application.
Closing Words
Update Manager for Windows is a useful program that gives administrators who run it more control over the updating process. The application is open source and portable, and updated regularly. A test on Virustotal returned zero hits at the time of writing but there is still some uncertainty in regards to the program's relationship with Windows Update MiniTool.
Now You: Do you use a third-party program to update Windows?
All is better than the current ClipChamp that it’s the most useless garbage ever done. Thanks for the article by the way.
Horrible company that bought out this ClipChamp trash. Microsoft no longer puts any effort into developing software; instead, they only want to use their subpar web services to con you out of more money.
No disrespect, but educators have known about MS Photos and the ability to work with videos for four years; may want to take a look at the MS Educators Blog:
https://educationblog.microsoft.com/en-us/2018/07/how-to-quickly-edit-videos-on-windows-10
The following link is part of the Blog:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-nz/windows/photo-movie-editor
Here to old fashion legacy stuff: I still use Movie Maker, which runs fine on Windows 10, and PhotoStory, which has enabled me to make some awesome slideshows.
Still using question marks without asking a question. That’s not professional.
“To edit it, you need to click on ‘edit & create’ from the top. “Do you mean with Windows 10 in photo’s “Video trim”?
– Video Editor:
KDENLIVE: https://kdenlive.org/en/
– DVD Authoring:
DVDFlick: http://www.dvdflick.net/
Both are free and are not “crippleware” like most “free” offerings for Windows.
Shaun, it really backfires to draw people’s eyes to something irrelevant. Links should have good information scent: that is, they must clearly explain where they will take users. Additionally, poor link labels hurt your search-engine ranking.
Don’t force users to read the text surrounding a link to determine where it leads. This is both time consuming and frustrating.