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Questions About Microcsoft Validation tool

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by Milt, 2005/10/19.

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  1. 2005/12/27
    invalid char

    invalid char Inactive

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    all downloads avail as a single iso file

    Quote: "I do my updates using the Update Catalog site accessable thu the Admin options on the update site (left panel).

    I download the update setup files themselves, manually install them, then archive them.

    This is a bit of extra work - have to have AU scan, then jot down the KB #'s, but as you point out, great to have the updates handy on installs. "

    Yes, Charles, and a good idea.. I just don't need any more adminstrative work than i have at my job already :D

    If the past updates were static, then periodically adding a few new ones to the pile would be not too painful. However new ones obsolete old ones, and service packs incorporate old ones (but not all old ones). Thus one never knows exactly *which* ones you need until you get ready to do a new install and see what UA tells you that you need. If you keep all old updates and install them all you may actually cause some headaches for yourself by installing old patches that interfere with new ones. Some of these are patches on top of patches on top of patches... (interesting recursive theme, eh?)
    Anyway, the only solution today is to do as you suggest, but I would really like to see the whole process be much simpler. Hell, for $10 I'd just order the update CD from MS if they created it. It's worth the price of the media, handling, shipping if it saves me half a day online.
     
    invalid char,
    #41
  2. 2005/12/27
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    You're making this seem harder than it really is. How to handle IE cumulative's is obvious. As for the rest, if they are archived in install date order, that's the way you re install. Having done this since Feb of 02, there are very few of those redundant patches.

    If you keep all old updates and install them all you may actually cause some headaches for yourself by installing old patches that interfere with new ones. makes no sense - we are positing a clean re install are we not? So the sequence of events would be OS - SP2 and then the earliest (post SP2) to latest patches, then to AU to look for the very latest that the user hadn't downloaded yet.

    One more issue, I don't install every patch that MS offers, I decide what's relavent.

    Regards - Charles
     
    charlesvar,
    #42


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  4. 2005/12/28
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    :confused:

    You say: so the obvious question is why doesnt m-soft put up an iso file with all this on it for one easy download for each major OS they support? this would seem like a no-brainer to me. each time they issue a new update, they could refresh the iso image so that it was always current.

    But that mean that for every new update you'd have to download the complete ISO again, that would increase download demand to the absurd.
     
    Arie,
    #43
  5. 2005/12/30
    invalid char

    invalid char Inactive

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    ISO file of updates

    You are correct and I'm sorry if I was unclear in my earlier post.
    Clearly if one had a system up and running that was nearly to up-to-date, then the easiest thing would be to just pull down the latest update files.. no-one would download hundreds of megs for no reason when all they need is a few K or M. ;)

    No, what I meant was that for just those folks who are in need of a system reinstall (forced or by choice), this would allow *them* to download the ISO which would get them, in one easy jump, up to current rev. Of course this would only be necessary if you were starting fresh from the distribution CD. Thus it would only affect a very few people at any one time and would be a very small load on the servers (actually no extra load at all since they would have to download all the updates anyway...just sequentially).

    I have probably re-installed my own copy of the OS 25 times or so in its life, but each time I do I really would like to have had a one-click upgrade at my fingertips. Start the download, go home, and in the morning have a fully updated OS sitting there. Right now our only recourse is to maintain our own patch compilation on our own hard-drives for those few times when we will need it .. a body of work that gets repeated by everyone in the community, when it really should be centralized and only done once, imho.
     
    invalid char,
    #44
  6. 2005/12/30
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    Yea, that would work.

    Problem with MS is that these days there is way to much time between Service Packs... That causes these problems.

    XP SP1 was released in September 2002, this was 11 months after the release of Windows XP. SP2 came in August 2004, 23 months after SP1.

    Latest info on XP SP3 is that MS will start with it after Vista ships, so that would be in the August-December 2006 time frame. Probably 3-6 months before it is released, so probably 2.5 - 3 years after SP2 :mad:
     
    Arie,
    #45
  7. 2005/12/30
    invalid char

    invalid char Inactive

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    ISO update pack

    Yup - thanks and I agree.

    I'm still running W2K and and up to SP4 + all sorts of baggage, not to mention IE, Direct X, etc... ugh. I love the OS though and am loath to leave it for XP.

    Perhaps my upcoming experiment with AMD64 will force this issue, since it seems that the AMD utilities that you so kindly pointed out in the other post are avail for XP64 or Win 2003 Server only. This may mean I only get one cpu under W2K?? Clearly I will need to investigate more here before I know what i'm talking about.. :D

    thanks again.

    invalid_character
     
    invalid char,
    #46
  8. 2005/12/30
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    Nope... they're Win2K too...
     
    Arie,
    #47
  9. 2006/01/01
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Arie,
    KB826939, "update rollup #1 for XP" was released in september 2003, between SP1 and SP2. It reduced the "debris" to be installed but it doesn't seem like a #2 is considered.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #48
  10. 2006/01/13
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    Well.... MS just did what we were discussing:

    Security and critical updates are available on ISO-9660 CD image files from the Microsoft Download Center

     
    Arie,
    #49
  11. 2006/01/13
    phillracer

    phillracer Inactive

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    phillracer,
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  12. 2006/01/13
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    I think only of that month... so you'll get 12 CD's a year for your collection :eek:

    The January download is 96MB... You'll have it in 56 languages (If I remember what I read a few hours ago, too lazy now to re-check), so for the average Joe User I'd say overkill!
     
    Arie,
    #51
  13. 2006/01/13
    phillracer

    phillracer Inactive

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    Yea 12cd's is a bit too much. Also for just the average user they should have a download for the most common languages e.g. english download and then we don't have to download all the other languages and then each month they could update the package.

    So if I wanted to formatt my computer today I can go to M$ website and download the ISO file (in English only) and it would have all the updates I need to bring me up to date on my new install of XP. It shouldn't be too big to download as it is just English language.

    Thats what I think they should do. What does everyone else think?

     
    phillracer,
    #52
  14. 2006/01/13
    invalid char

    invalid char Inactive

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    wow - pretty strange we were just talking about this...

    i myself won't be collecting any CDs until i need them since they will be obsoleted by the next rev, but it's great to know the iso is there when i want to reformat.

    thx for the post :D
     
    invalid char,
    #53
  15. 2006/01/14
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    I only made a quick visit to the download page but as I understand it:

    The CD is rereleased each month and is cumulative.

    You choose your language when downloading.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #54
  16. 2006/01/14
    invalid char

    invalid char Inactive

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    ho-hum..
    I made an equally quick visit but it appears that it's *not* cumulative... (someone pls correct me if I'm wrong) but instead it has all the releases for all OSs for that month. i.e. it assumes you are patched up to date and so only includes *that month's* new material. This means you have to download a giant ISO each month and archive it. this is no better than the existing system of multiple downloads to get a new install up to rev.

    unfortunately that is not what i was hoping for. if I have W2k English, I dont care about all the zillion other OSs and languages. I was looking to get a single, cumulative ISO that took me from the original distribution disk to present latest rev in one download.

    oh well...
     
    invalid char,
    #55
  17. 2006/01/14
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    You're right! When I change the language, all that happens is that the "download window" itself gets in a different language but the iso is the same.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #56
  18. 2006/03/11
    krk3344

    krk3344 Inactive

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    multiple xp installs

    I have several versions of xp
    I've installed 2 on machines for my sister and 2-3 here but have lost track of which ones are which
    I'm pretty sure the install I did a few days ago was a-ok but have not yet rec'd any nags to activate
    what happens if the one I just installed was previously installed on another one of my machines....will the activation fail or will problems occur with other machine or what??
    most are xp pro version but also have 1 xp home
     
    krk3344,
    #57
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