How to Manually Download and Install Windows Updates
Recently I was faced with a situation where I had an automatic update that wouldn’t install. To try and troubleshoot this issue, I needed a way to download the update so I could install it manually. Since Microsoft doesn’t offer such an option, I had to look elsewhere for help. Luckily, there is a program that was created to do just this.
Windows Update Downloader can manually download any update for Windows Vista, XP, 2003, 2000, Office 2003, and even Exchange 2003. It’s also great to use in conjunction with a Windows Vista Unattended Installation CD and Windows XP Unattended Installation CD so the updates are installed with the OS. Just follow these steps to get started.
Step 1: Download Windows Update Downloader and install it.
Step 2: Download the Update List for the product you wish to download updates for and double click it to automatically import it.
Step 3: Open Windows Update Downloader and select the updates you wish to download. You can change the location in which the updates are downloaded by clicking “Change” next to Download Folder. Click the “Show Options” button and select “Product as subfolder” to separate the downloaded updates into subfolders based on the product name. This makes them much easier to sort through if you are downloading updates for multiple products.
Step 4: Click “Download” to start downloading updates.
Step 5: Once the updates have finished, you can navigate to your download folder to retrieve your updates.
You are now ready to install the updates with a simple double click. If you have any experience with downloading Windows Updates manually, please feel free to share.
Other Posts You Might Like:
- How to Create a Windows Offline Update CD
- How to Create a Windows Vista Unattended Installation CD
- How to Create a Windows XP Unattended Installation CD
- How to Copy Windows Drivers from One Computer to Another
- How to Find and Change a Windows Vista, XP, and 2003 Product Key
February 16th, 2008 at 12:50 am
So, is this an Autopatcher clone?
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February 16th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Actually Autopatcher is more like Offline Update which I wrote about here. http://www.emergingtechs.com/posts/how-create-windows-offline-update-cd
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February 11th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Casey:
I am unfamiliar with the “.ashx” extension on the downloaded file. What is the procedure to install this file type?
Thanx!
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February 12th, 2009 at 9:25 am
Hi R. W. Ragan,
The website that contains the Windows Update Downloader has a .aspx extension because it was coded in ASP.NET. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASP.NET If you are unable to view this site then your browser must not support ASP.NET. I would recommend downloading the latest version of Firefox or Internet Explorer. Hope this helps
-Casey
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May 31st, 2009 at 10:56 am
i have a virus that disables my update, and i need this program, but i have Windows Vista Service pack 1 32x Bit, so do i choose 86x or 64x?
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June 10th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
on this lets say you started with windows xp sp1 then you upgrade to sp2 then to sp3 and you missed a few updates for sp1 & sp2 here and there. would you have to download both od the Windows XP Service Pack 2 & Windows XP Service Pack 3 Update Lists (ULs) or just the latest 1?
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Casey Reply:
June 17th, 2009 at 5:51 am
You should be able to get away with just installing Service Pack 3 plus any updates that were released after that.
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June 19th, 2009 at 6:19 am
Thanks a lot for this guide.
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August 29th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
i have a question
i have a Xp sp2 32-bit, will it work if i use the 64-bit list?
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September 1st, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Thank you so much! i have been fighting with Microsoft for months over my updates not working. Everything on the net tells me to run them manually but i never figured out how until I came across this site. Thanks again!
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April 17th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
good work keep it up….
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May 17th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Is this still an option ? I cannot get to your website to download the installer…
http://wud.jcarle.com/ProgramFiles.aspx
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Casey Reply:
May 18th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Hi Jim,
The site works for me. Just click on the download link on that page.
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September 17th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
Im operating windows vista SP1 with dual amd 64 bit processor. For some reason my windows update stopped working a while ago and I haven’t been able to dl updates for years now. I followed the instructions for this manual install but whenever i click on the downloaded update installs for the x64 SP2 updates (including critical updates, IE updates etc) ALL of them say that the update doesn’t apply to my system. I tried DLing the x82 files and they are exactly the same. Any way around this???
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September 23rd, 2010 at 12:55 pm
If There Any Way To Download Updates For Windows 7???
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October 5th, 2010 at 2:36 am
thank u for demonstrating clearly wat s 2 b done…
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October 11th, 2010 at 4:43 am
It was excellent thank u very much
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May 2nd, 2011 at 12:28 pm
@Joy:
http://windows7themes.net/how-to-install-windows-7-updates-manually.html
@Blogger:
Thank you very much for this suberb article! A friend of mine couldn’t update through Windows Update, it always said “error code 80070246″. Hope this will work out well!
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May 24th, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Hopefully this works.
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May 24th, 2011 at 7:59 pm
Yeah. It’s not working.
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June 25th, 2011 at 9:51 pm
u are really a God sent.thankx alot,this info really helped.
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November 2nd, 2011 at 8:53 am
Link to download isn’t working. Please help.
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Casey Reply:
November 2nd, 2011 at 12:48 pm
The links have been fixed. Thanks!
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January 3rd, 2012 at 3:25 am
Hey can you tell me what is the advantage of offline update over online updates ? Can I apply offline updates on a pirated copy of win7 ?
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