is there any way of "seeding" a machine with updates ?

I have been asked to update a large number of machines
i am primarly interested in office updates but also windows updates.

I would love to try WSUS but as an external contractor this is not an option

the problem i have is that the machines which are mainly XP SP2 ish
with components of office XP and 2003 (ie office XP with outlook 2003)

i am currently having to manually install OXP SP3 and O2003 SP2 from the
local network to save time, BUT still have to run office update to download
the rest of the updates this requires a download of 50 to 80 MB depending on
the machine.
from start to finnish this can take upto 1 hour per machine (inc download,
install,test) although i have 4-8 machines running at once..

is there any way of predownloading the files so they can be put on the
machine so that when you runn office update it will install the required
files but not have to download them first!

Offline Microsoft patching? How about
http://www.heise-security.co.uk/articles/80682

Regards,

--
Donna Buenaventura
Windows Security MVP 2004-2007
cou.dozleng.com | msmvps.com/donna

"Legion" <> wrote in message
news:1F06C563-BAF4-4C39-BD60-...
>I have been asked to update a large number of machines
> i am primarly interested in office updates but also windows updates.
>
> I would love to try WSUS but as an external contractor this is not an
> option
>
> the problem i have is that the machines which are mainly XP SP2 ish
> with components of office XP and 2003 (ie office XP with outlook 2003)
>
> i am currently having to manually install OXP SP3 and O2003 SP2 from the
> local network to save time, BUT still have to run office update to
> download
> the rest of the updates this requires a download of 50 to 80 MB depending
> on
> the machine.
> from start to finnish this can take upto 1 hour per machine (inc download,
> install,test) although i have 4-8 machines running at once..
>
> is there any way of predownloading the files so they can be put on the
> machine so that when you runn office update it will install the required
> files but not have to download them first!

Nice tool, but my main problem is with Office updates...

"Donna [MVP]" wrote:

> Offline Microsoft patching? How about
> http://www.heise-security.co.uk/articles/80682
>
> Regards,
>
> --
> Donna Buenaventura
> Windows Security MVP 2004-2007
> cou.dozleng.com | msmvps.com/donna

Why don't you make a list of the ones you need, go to the Office
downloads site say:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/do...225741033.aspx

Click each download you want in turn save it somewhere. When you've got
them all run each one with /? to find out which switches each uses.
Write a little batch file to execute each one in turn, silently and with
no user intervention, save it on a server/cd/memory stick then execute
it on each machine. Of course you need one for XP and one for 2003. I
used to do it this way before I had WSUS. I kept all XP and Office, post
service pack, updates just for this purpose. Also handy if you have to
build a machine from scratch.


> Nice tool, but my main problem is with Office updates...
>
> "Donna [MVP]" wrote:
>
>> Offline Microsoft patching? How about
>> http://www.heise-security.co.uk/articles/80682
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> --
>> Donna Buenaventura
>> Windows Security MVP 2004-2007
>> cou.dozleng.com | msmvps.com/donna

They are probably in %windir%SoftwareDistribution as that's what you get
rid of when you have corrupted updates that are downloaded but won't
apply. I'd try setting a system to automatically download updates but
not apply them and then do a search for the update file. Sorry I can't
help more but WSUS has spoilt me.

> my original idea was much the same, but to place or 'seed' the target pc by
> copying the downloaded updates onto the target pc so that when you run office
> update (or microsoft update) they are found as already downloaded, so the
> update systems download extra updates as required.
>
> however i need to know where to put them and if the updates are stored in a
> flat directory with sensible names.....
>
> any ideas?
>
> "Adrian Cotton" wrote:
>
>> Why don't you make a list of the ones you need, go to the Office
>> downloads site say:
>>
>> http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/do...225741033.aspx
>>
>> Click each download you want in turn save it somewhere. When you've got
>> them all run each one with /? to find out which switches each uses.
>> Write a little batch file to execute each one in turn, silently and with
>> no user intervention, save it on a server/cd/memory stick then execute
>> it on each machine. Of course you need one for XP and one for 2003. I
>> used to do it this way before I had WSUS. I kept all XP and Office, post
>> service pack, updates just for this purpose. Also handy if you have to
>> build a machine from scratch.
>>
>>
>>> Nice tool, but my main problem is with Office updates...
>>>
>>> "Donna [MVP]" wrote:
>>>
>>>> Offline Microsoft patching? How about
>>>> http://www.heise-security.co.uk/articles/80682
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Donna Buenaventura
>>>> Windows Security MVP 2004-2007
>>>> cou.dozleng.com | msmvps.com/donna