Updating Windows Without Windows Update . . .

Windows Update on a CD: Where to manually download
Microsoft’s fixes for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000.

Keeping up with Windows fixes, updates, and patches
has never been easy. With new Windows versions like
WinME and Win2000 added to that mix, end-users have a
tine-consuming task and an administrator’s job reaches
a new plane of hell.

Microsoft had a relatively good idea on how to ease
this tedious process a bit with Windows Update, which
combines all the fixes for any specific version of
Windows into one website.

Now, Windows users can visit
one webpage and download the relevant updates without
having to figure out what they do and don’t need.

Unfortunately, most folks are using dialup connections,
so using Windows Update still takes forever with a ton
of reboots in between marathon download sessions.

Windows Update also did not make an administrator’s
job easier. If you have more than one Windows
installation, or heaven forbid more than one version
of Windows installed, you’ll still have to play
musical webpages on each computer to get all the
fixes. Trying tricks such as grabbing the install
files is hard, too – they are automatically deleted
after installation.

Wouldn’t it be easier to download all the fixes, store
them on a removable medium like a burned CD, and
simply use that to install the fixes? Yes, it would,
but Microsoft didn’t design Windows Update with this
in mind.

Administrators and power-users rejoice! Microsoft DID
make this possible! They just didn’t go out of their
way to call attention to it for the home-user crowd.
However, since overclockers tend to be more
computer-literate than the average user,
Overclockers.com regulars might benefit from being
able to grab ALL of the available fixes in one place
at one time and burn them to CD-ROM or store them on a
removable large-capacity disk or whatever for
installation later on one or a multitude of computers.
Plus, if you have more than one WIndows version, you
can grab the fixes for all of the versions you have.

All you need is a few hundred megabytes of space to
store the files, and a day or so to collect all the
updates. Simply download everything for your Windows
version(s), transfer them to your favorite method of
transporting files (CD-R, Zip/Jaz disk, etc.), and
install them at your leisure. (Author’s note: I find
it a good idea when using a local copy of the updates
burned onto a CD-ROM, to use Windows Update to tell me
what I need to install, but install from my CD instead
of from Windows Update. On dialup connections, this
turns an all-day job into a one-hour job!)

One more note: When installing updates manually like
this, it’s VERY WISE to reboot after installing EACH
fix. The one-at-a-time process is a bit more of a
hassle than installing a bunch of updates at once, but
some of them require that certain updates be performed
first.

The pages for each operating system version are listed
below.

For Windows 95 and 95 OSR 2.x:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/

For Windows 98 and 98 Second Edition (SE):

http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/corporate.asp

For Windows Millennium Edition (ME):

Microsoft does not have a direct-download page for
WinME yet. Sorry, you’re stuck with Windows Update for
now!

For Windows NT 4.0 Workstation:

http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/

For Windows NT 4.0 Server (Including Terminal Server
and BackOffice):

http://www.microsoft.com/NTServer/all/downloads.asp

For Windows 2000 (All versions):