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How do I download updates for XP without installing it first?

E

Escalade

Senior member

When I go to the XP download site...
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/home.asp
it tell me that I need to be running WinXP in order to access it!?!

The corporate download site...
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/catalog
doesn't have Xp drives/update on it!

I don't have a system with XP on it (yet!) I have a brand-spankin' new system here and want to install XP on it, but before I do I want to be sure to have all the update files available to me.

Any ideas?

TIA

 
<FONT size=1> [don't have a system with XP on it (yet!) I have a brand-spankin' new system here and want to install XP on it, but before I do I want to be sure to have all the update files available to me.]
</FONT>

You are going at it the wrong way. When you install XP it will auto log onto the Microsoft XP web site and download required updates for XP. That requires you to have a connection to your ISP to be active. If not then after installing XP you can log onto your ISP and then select to log onto the MS XP update site and then download all the XP updates. The updates auto install once downloaded. You can select which updates you want installed. May be some updates you will not want so select each update you wish to download on screen.

You cannot download those updates before installing XP because the update web site checks your system and then determines which update downloads are relevant for YOUR system.

If you have a dial-up system that can take a while to download all the updates. If you have cable or DSL it is quite fast.


 


<< ....download required updates for XP. That requires you to have a connection to your ISP to be active. >>


That's going to be a problem... this system isn't going to be connected to the 'net! It doesn't even have a nic card or a modem!

Have we now reached the point where it is assumed *every* system is on the net!?!

There must be some other way of doing this. What do they do for corporate roll-outs, surly they are not connecting *each* pc to the net for updates!
 
This is the link I have for the corporate updates...http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp?corporate=true. I notice that it only gives me XP and .NET updates. I assume it will act the same as yours and only give you updates for your OS.

There is a website out there that has all of the updates. I read it either on this messageboard, or over at arstechnica a week or two ago. I'll do a quick search and edit this if I find it.
 
the updates that windows update gives you are specific for YOUR system. you cant just go and download an update that updates everything. there are updates for certain types of software, certain hardware, etc. when you do a windows update, it looks at your system and tells you what updates you need.
it isnt like downloading a service pack which fixes general problems and bugs in the OS itself.

this is why you cant download the updates before you have the OS, it doesnt know what your system needs
 
Tol, thanks for the link. However, I get the same message trying to access that site as well...

Thank you for your interest in Windows Update

Windows Update is the online extension of Windows that helps
you get the most out of your computer.

The newest version of Windows Update is only available on
computers that are running Microsoft Windows XP.



<< ...you cant download the updates before you have the OS, it doesnt know what your system needs. >>


Hmmm... I don't like OSes that pretend to be smarter than I am. 😉 ...starting to think I'm *really* not going to like WinXP... maybe I should stick with Win2k.
 
winxp is not the first version of windows to use windows update. even your beloved win2k uses it. i think you are wanting to download a service pack, but none have been released for xp yet.
 
ME,


You are correct in all Windows since Win95 uses the MS update site for each version of Windows. Don't know how anyone thinks it is different. If he is running Win 2K and has not logged onto its MS update site his Win 2K must be woefully lacking in all the needed updates and security updates. He is vulnerable to hack attacks and whatever.

When logged onto the MS Windows update site you are shown which updates you need or could use for YOUR computer. Then you are given a choice to download and install only those updates you think you need. Apparently Esc has never logged onto the MS update site or he would know that.

I would not want to have his computer as one of my systems.


 
Esc,

[<FONT size=1>That's going to be a problem... this system isn't going to be connected to the 'net! It doesn't even have a nic card or a modem! ]


You can buy a 10/100 NIC card for under $15. Should be good enough for a temporary setup to log onto the internet. Plug it in, set it up to log onto your ISP and that should solve your problem. Temporarily connect your modem to the new computer then download what you need for XP updates. Remove the modem on your new system and reconnect it to your old system. I use external modems so that makes it easier to switch a modem from one computer to another.

If you have an internal modem in your old computer then you have a problem or buy another external modem. I totally dislike :disgust: internal modems on a card.

</FONT>
 
As a member of the WindowsUpdate beta team, I think I can tell you that MS is pushing the XP version of WindowsUpdate to all platforms. As a very inactive beta tester, I don't know if MS is still pushing us in this direction nor do I know how soon everyone will be on the (hehe) "same page."

One of the major changes as observed above, is that the corporate updates is merged into WU, and is no longer a completely separate site. I would expect, however, that updates for all OSes would eventually be made available from that common interface.

-SUO
 

<FONT face=Verdana size=1>SUOrangeman
</FONT>
A different subject:

Since you were a beta tester for XP -- a friend of mine told me to download XP updates from the MS Corporate web site. I logged on and tried to download a 5.2 VM* meg file. I ended up with a file about a thousand bytes with a strange name ending with XML.

What happened to the 5 meg file I was downloading? Plus since when installing XP Pro I let it log onto the MS web site and it downloaded and installed some install updates. After a successful install I logged onto the MS XP Update site and it found I needed more updates so with fast DSL I selected some and downloaded them and installed them. After that you can select to View all updates I have installed. That works fine. It showed I had already installed the VM* update.

BUT how do you know when downloading updates from the Corporate web site the file you may be downloading has already been installed or not?


 


<< If he is running Win 2K and has not logged onto its MS update site his Win 2K must be woefully lacking in all the needed updates and security updates >>


With Win2k (et. al.) MicroSoft set up a separate download facility for corporate users, thus you can download *all* the updates, patches, etc. through the 'corporate' site, place them on a disk and install them on as many computers as you need - the computers you install the updates on need not be connected to a network of any kind. All this is done without logging into the default MicroSoft update site.

Having to vist the 'standard' user's windows update site, where MicroSoft scans you system and suggests what you need, isn't going to sit well with me. 🙂 Like I said before "I don't like OSes that pretend to know what I want" - I know what I want! Plus I also archive the updates on disk for future use... in a multi-pc enviroment, it's a waste a bandwidth to continually download the same files, over and over, for each computer!

With WinXp it seems that this method (as verified by SUorangeman) no longer works. A lot of power-users arn't going to be happy, home-users won't notice a difference.
 
I could be wrong, but when you update your OS, update files are stored in a folder within windows. If this is true, then can you just make a copy of that folder and put it in other systems to update?
 
ketchupdog, saving the update folders contents worked well for me for 98,me and w2k but when i did it with xp and ran windows update it didn't see that the files where already on the hardrive and downloaded them instead.

i still use a dialup acount and would like to be able to use the files more than once and i;m sure there's a way but havn't figured it out yet.

if theres a way someone here will find it and maybe it will be added to the faq's.

anyone know?????
 

I can understand if a person still uses dial-up even at 56K it is a very slow process to download Windows updates. I happen to be one of the lucky persons who has fast DSL and can download those updates in seconds or minutes while dial-up users may take a lot longer to download them. When I had a dial-up service I would not download some updates because it took so long and sometimes during a long download my ISP would cut me off saying I had not typed anything within a certain time period.

🙂

 
Unfortunately, I was not a part of the *XP* beta. I was on for Millennium (WinME) and I think MS just kept me/everyone on for WindowsUpdate.

-SUO
 
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