In praise of “WSUS Offline Update” for speeding up Windows 7 patches

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Reader SH took WSUS Offline Updater for a spin. It’s an open source (GNU GPL) program that lets you install updates offline – no network connection ne
[See the full post at: In praise of “WSUS Offline Update” for speeding up Windows 7 patches]

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Interesting that after good reviews elsewhere, now we have a full report about WSUS Offline here. Another useful tool to mitigate issues with slow and inconsistent Windows Update as it appears.
A positive fact is that controversial updates like KB3035583, KB2952664 are vetted and not installed by default.
What is probably not obvious is that there is maintenance required on the developer side to keep up to date with updates, remove the “bad” ones and WSUS Offline being a free tool, there is no guarantee that the good work done until now will continue in the future.

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I don’t get it… How is this any safer or different than running WSUS online? I mean you ran it offline and it installed GWX garbage just like online then you ran GWX Control panel to get rid of that garbage just like normal… Instead of just selecting all updates indiscriminately, it may have made more sense to not select the GWX stuff. Besides most updates are for security reasons and only a small percentage apply to a specific Windows issue that YOU may be having… If you’re not connected to the internet security isn’t an issue. As soon as you connect to the internet any advantage you had for doing it offline is void… So what is your point?

Listen, when you’re being spied on you can never connect to the internet… The computer will just log all your actions… it could be 5 days or 5 years… The second you connect to the internet it will upload all of that information…

It’s a closed operating system the user only see the interface. When you type or do anything and press enter, you have no idea what happens to your data… Oh sure it will likely get to where you want it to go… and 10 other places you had no idea existed or for what purposes… Sheez… This place really is like the Romper Room of tech…

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Heck yeah. I’ve used this for many years, and it’s the best option if you have to update multiple computers (especially a whole batch) without a domain and WSUS server.

The really useful thing is if, for example, you have had a copy of this for a few years and kept the updates you’ve downloaded over the years, as it’s a good way to cache patches locally for operating systems or apps Microsoft no longer provides updates for. I still have a copy with the last set of Windows 2000 and XP updates Microsoft released, so if I ever have to support an old PC (which for software compatibility may not run anything newer), I can at least patch it up to as-possible as can be.

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i’m looking for a couple files, if you have a wsus win 7 server:

the hotfix 980396

Bluetooth devices do not work correctly on a computer that is running Windows 7

and

Windows Mobile-based device support
for windows 7

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You started at 9:50pm and you finished at 9:32am. (11 hours 42 minutes)True you went to bed, but couldn’t Windows Update just download in the background while you were sleeping? You still had to futzed around with it, booting and rebooting and you still had to use GWX control panel to remove the Get Windows 10 Icon etc.

By the way, you didn’t mention how long it took to download all of the WSUS offline updates which included every update in the Windows Update repository, even the ones you didn’t need (and Windows Update ONLINE would’ve ignored)

Yep, sounds like a real time saver, thanks.

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For those who are not convinced or do not understand this system, it is exactly what Michael says. A useful tool for updating multiple systems by maintaining a cache of the Microsoft repository. It is an Open Source alternative to Microsoft WSUS without the need to have a server license.
It may also improve the user experience with patching, in particular for those systems who are many patches behind until they catch up and this is the main reason for which this was originally posted here.
No obligation for anyone to use it if they feel that this tool is not useful or adds another layer of complexity, although it has a lot of followers worldwide and a lot of positive reviews.

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I recently tested out WSUS Offline Update on downloading Vista x64 updates on a Vista SP2 computer – took about 45 minutes downloading about 250 patches; I’m using a 3Mbps DSL connection from AT&T. I’ll try using the same tool on my aunt’s Win7 x64 PC since she lives near my house and she has a 20Mbps cable internet connection from Time Warner.

There are also older versions of WSUS Offline Update tool posted on their web site for those who are using Windows XP & older (look closely at the “Archive” section). I wish I had found this tool sooner but better late than never.

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That isn’t a review of WSUS Offline Update (not ‘Updater’), rather a report of a novice user’s first-time experience.

The report doesn’t even skim the surface of the options and configuration available, which is why the detractors completely miss the point. To understand WSUS-OU, you need to, at least, give it a try before railing on about how useless it is.

Bullet points off the top of my head:
– Updates are downloaded by OS version, architecture (32/64-bit) and language;
– MS Office updates (on/off) by language;
– Configurable blacklist;
– Automatic reboot and resume;
– Download once, install many.

Regarding GWX, WSUS-OU, as far as I remember (but haven’t checked), does not install any of the GWX updates, but neither does it prevent them. Nor does it prevent any of the other blacklisted updates from subsequently being installed when online. This is entirely reasonable behaviour — it’s an updater, not a system configuration tool.

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I can relate your results to a Win 7 x64 Ultimate system I set up last year at the end of April… Same sort of thing; I started in the evening and finished the next day, and slept after starting and before finishing.

I used only the normal end-user Windows Update, and starting the install from an original 2009 retail DVD on a blank disk at 4/29/2015 at 8:22:44 PM (per the first entries in the System Event Log), I had the last of the available updates at the time (KB2976627) (after reboots, etc.) in by 4/30/2015 at 11:55:50 AM.

By 4:38:43 PM (what’s that, about 4 hours shy of a full day) I had everything done and the system nicely configured and productive.

I’m impressed at how quickly you completed the update installation task, SH. Thanks for sharing your experience.

-Noel

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“WSUS Offline” doesn’t download anything, it already has downloaded everything before.

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Clearly you don’t have a grasp of the article or subject. In the future you might want to refrain from the snide comments until you understand the subject.

Updating the WSUS offline tool takes mere minutes. I do many more clean installs than the average user as part of my job. It currently takes 2-3 hours just to get a list of available updates after a Windows 7 install, to say nothing of the download and install time after that.

WSUS takes maybe 1.5 hrs average to actually install the same updates it takes Windows 7 3 hours to find.

Remain ignorant if you wish, the rest of us will still benefit from this useful time saver.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Elly

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To Reader SH and Woody:

When there is a report like this with elapsed times, the readers of this message probably would be better able to relate to it if we knew two facts: 1) Broadband speed (marketing number or actual experience)and 2) type of disk onto which Windows and/or Office is being written (at least SSD vs Hard Disk). This was Windows 7 and probably was a Hard Disk install.

I have a Windows 2 in 1 with SSD. IIRC, Windows 10 Version 1511 initially installed in about 45 minutes, most of which was download time, but the install step lasted 5-10 minutes and the configuration step lasted 5 minutes or less, IIRC. The most recent (April) cumulative update seemed to install in seconds. I know that Microsoft had previously downloaded it and installing cumulative updates of Windows 10 Version 1511 now seems to occur almost immediately.

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Okay, guys. Take the personal stuff down a notch or two, please. We’re discussing a product, not casting a presidential vote.

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WSUS offline updater is even faster than SH would have you believe. You can script it to run and reboot as necessary to speed up the process. Normally there are 2-3 times that a reboot will be required to install the rest of the updates. I’ve seen WSUS offline take fresh SP1 Win 7 install and have it fully patched within 3 hours.

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It didn’t install any “GWX garbage” from what I read.
If you’re referring to this —
“…installed GWX Control Panel, to see if any updates WSUS had installed might have turned any Windows 10 updating on. What was on was ‘Get Win 10 icon app allowed’ and ‘Are Windows 10 upgrades allowed’, so I shut those off…”
— nothing GWX related was installed. Those are normal defaults, just indicating that the GWX-CP hasn’t been told to preempt the icon yet (since, you know, this is the first time it was ran), and that the *ability* to upgrade had not been *manually* opted-out yet (requiring registry edit(s)).

This was just a report of the process, including length. No opinions were given on “the point” of doing this, and in all likelihood this test was done offline just to have a controlled environment. But I can tell you that those whom I’ve seen tout wsusoffline.net usually have a different purpose in mind than privacy. Just read the other comments on this page for examples. I’m sure you too can think of some obvious advantages/uses of a tool such as this. From a user-created documentation:
“When would I use this [program]?
• When performing a fresh installation of Windows
• When you come across a Windows computer that has not been updated in ages
• When you are at a site with an extremely slow internet connection.”
As an addendum to the first two items, one primary *reason* would be to get the critical security updates installed so the user isn’t taking a “naked” machine online — especially if 3rd-party software (e.g. web browser) is on the agenda, but still needs to be downloaded or updated.

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“…you still had to use GWX control panel to remove the Get Windows 10 Icon…”

A copy/paste portion from my comment above–
If you’re referring to this —
“…installed GWX Control Panel, to see if any updates WSUS had installed might have turned any Windows 10 updating on. What was on was ‘Get Win 10 icon app allowed’ and ‘Are Windows 10 upgrades allowed’, so I shut those off…”
— nothing GWX related was installed. Those are normal defaults, just indicating that the GWX-CP hasn’t been told to preempt the icon yet (since, you know, this is the first time it was ran), and that the *ability* to upgrade had not been *manually* opted-out yet (requiring registry edit(s)).

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So then you got it on a CD?

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“Remain ignorant if you wish”?

Dave you may do “Many more installs than the Average User” but if it takes you 2 or 3 hours just to get a list of updates I would say upgrade to a 28.8k modem… Here’s a thought from 30 years in IT. Do a base install of Windows 7, apply updates and image the system to roll out on as many computers as you want… Once you have the image it takes about 15 minutes to do the install with ALL UPDATES included and the HAL is cleaned so it’ll go on any computer regardless of configuration beit one guy at home or a large company that could multicast it to 5000 computers simultaneously… So what were you saying about “Ignorance”?

Please accept my apologies Woody I thought this was the Pro-Trump forum 😉

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“No opinions were given on “the point” of doing this”

Bradly, The title of the thread;

In praise of “WSUS Offline Update”

The “In Praise” part sounded like an opinion. My Bad.

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I’ve always used Autopatcher for this, and keep it updated regularly. Anyone else using this method to stay patched & up to date?

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I appreciate the developer’s effort in creating WSUS Offline Update. A really useful feature in a future update would be to have a way of specifying the up-front stuff (Win version, language, options, etc.) on the download web page, and download the actual update files; rather than downloading a .exe file that then must be run on a Windows machine to actually download the updates. This way the update files can be downloaded on any system (Mac, Linux, …) and transferred to the Windows machine to be updated via, for example, a flash drive. The idea is to avoid exposing a Windows system to the internet, while at the same time ensuring its security from acts such as plugging in a flash drive.

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My reply to the replies:

1. I had already download a primary batch of Windows 7×64 Updates using the WSUS Offline Updater “UpdateGenerator.exe” module before I tried it on a fresh install of Win7x64 Pro. I think I mentioned to Woody in a separate message a few days earlier that the download of 226 ‘patches’ of 980 megs had taken about 15 minutes over a 60 megabit cable connection, my network connection was running between 50 and 60 megabits during that time. Sorry I didn’t mention that in my report. As user “NW” said: “This is a download once, install many” process, so the initial download time could be counted in the process. I refreshed my 14 day old ‘repository’ today, that took about 5 minutes, so my batch is totally up to date as of today. Broadband speed has nothing to do with the WSUS update process (as the system was ‘offline’). Broadband speed only come into play to download the initial big glob of updates.

2. I installed GWX Control panel to see what WSUS Offline might have installed to possibly activate upgrades to Windows 10. I disabled them since I have no reason to ‘upgrade’ this TEST system to Win10.

3. I was doing the Update process in manual mode to watch better what was going on. As I mentioned, I am aware that it could have been automated, I did not want to do that.

4. I believe I mentioned the words “loaded the WSUS package to a folder on the HARD DISK….”. So, yes the WSUS Offline Updater was run on HARD DISK.

5. The system was kept off line on purpose. Not much sense in having it online, as this was a test of the WSUS Offline Updater utility. I did report what occurred after WSUS was done, and what remaining updates were found using the regular way (as my repository was not totally up to date for the test).

6. Sorry I didn’t add up the total elapsed computer time, but I can assure you that this process was much faster than doing it the ‘regular’ way. Remember this was a fresh install of Win7 SP1. The last 2 fresh systems I did just a week or so ago took almost 2 days of off and on messing with, plus had to be babysitted the whole time.

Follow up: I just did another system today (using the totally up-to-date repository) that had not been updated since September of 2015. I ran that update process in the automated mode. Short story is it worked very well. I might write up a report on that process.

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The “In Praise” part was my two cents. My Bad. 🙂

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HA! Trump? Moi? OK, guys, you’ve both taken your shots. Time to take it outside….

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or USB stick, yes.

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Have you actually tried WSUS-OU? Except that it must be run from a working computer, all the points that you mention are already covered.

I’m not sure about Mac support, but certainly the download phase can be run from either Windows or Linux, specifying the Windows version and language, include service packs or not, Office (version, language) or not, Live Essentials, Security Essentials, .NET and others.

It will also prepare either a .iso image or a fileset for USB installation to the target machine.

This is not intended for (but can be used on) a single, end-user machine, rather for caching updates locally and applying them to multiple machines, with a high level of automation and without the need for a local WSUS server.

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I just downloaded wsusoffline 1062.zip file on a Mac and unzipped it. That results in two executables: UpdateGenerator.exe and UpdateGenerator.au3. Neither of these will run on a Mac. The .au3 executable, I assume, will run on Linux. I will try that. Thanks for the heads up.

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No, you have to try DownloadUpdates.sh under /sh.

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Cool tool but I second this. After running this tool twice to be sure, I have over 150 updates on a clean win7 machine that still need to be installed. I am running the updates a third time with wsus offline just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Also a tip about using this tool, make sure you run the program as administrator or you will run into some permission issues.

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Let me clarify that, 7 important updates on win 7 pro alone are left. I have Office 2013 Pro Plus on this build as well, Office 2013 non-security updates and the recommended updates were the ones that put the updates to above 150 after running WSUS offline.

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Had a request to post this question as a comment (and, btw, having satellite as an internet provider didn’t work offline, had to be online)…
I purchased a Win7 w/SP1 64bit Home Premium CD with Key, and upgraded my Dell 1737 laptop from Vista. Never in a million years did I think it would throw such a monkey wrench in the Windows Update process! It simply continued looping on into eternity! I went to the Microsoft site to research whether anyone else was having the same problem, and, oh boy- should have researched the subject before I thought to upgrade! At any rate, after trying one patch after another, WHICH, initially I did have some success with (installed updates now number 139, although the WU activity tracker isn’t keeping track- it says I never did that)- I found your WSUSoffline1062.

FIrst run of the application shows this on the log file:

Mon 05/02/2016 8:55:09.13 – Info: Starting WSUS Offline Update download (v. 10.6.2) for w61-x64 glb
Mon 05/02/2016 8:55:09.15 – Info: Option /includedotnet detected
Mon 05/02/2016 8:55:09.18 – Info: Option /includewle detected
Mon 05/02/2016 8:55:09.22 – Info: Option /includemsse detected
Mon 05/02/2016 8:55:09.26 – Info: Option /verify detected
Mon 05/02/2016 8:55:09.30 – Info: Option /exitonerror detected
Mon 05/02/2016 8:55:09.91 – Info: Set time zone to LOC5:00
wget: unable to resolve host address `download.wsusoffline.net’
wget: unable to resolve host address `download.wsusoffline.net’
Mon 05/02/2016 8:55:10.35 – Info: Updated static download and update definitions
Mon 05/02/2016 8:55:10.43 – Warning: Download of mkisofs tool failed
Mon 05/02/2016 8:55:10.52 – Error: Download failure for w61-x64 glb

——————————————————————————–

Mon 05/02/2016 8:56:25.29 – Info: Starting WSUS Offline Update download (v. 10.6.2) for w61-x64 glb
Mon 05/02/2016 8:56:25.29 – Info: Option /includedotnet detected
Mon 05/02/2016 8:56:25.34 – Info: Option /includewle detected
Mon 05/02/2016 8:56:25.37 – Info: Option /includemsse detected
Mon 05/02/2016 8:56:25.40 – Info: Option /verify detected
Mon 05/02/2016 8:56:25.44 – Info: Option /exitonerror detected
Mon 05/02/2016 8:56:27.28 – Info: Set time zone to LOC5:00
2016-05-02 08:56:28 URL:http://download.wsusoffline.net/StaticDownloadFiles-modified.txt [0/0] -> “../static/StaticDownloadFiles-modified.txt” [1]
2016-05-02 08:56:29 URL:http://download.wsusoffline.net/StaticUpdateFiles-modified.txt [0/0] -> “../client/static/StaticUpdateFiles-modified.txt” [1]
Mon 05/02/2016 8:56:29.90 – Info: Updated static download and update definitions
Mon 05/02/2016 8:57:07.48 – Info: Downloaded/validated mkisofs tool
Mon 05/02/2016 8:58:19.41 – Info: Downloaded Sysinternals’ tools Autologon, Sigcheck and Streams
Mon 05/02/2016 13:32:23.79 – Info: Downloaded/validated most recent Windows Update Agent installation and catalog files
Mon 05/02/2016 13:32:27.19 – Info: Verified digital file signatures of Windows Update Agent installation and catalog files
Mon 05/02/2016 13:32:31.96 – Info: Created integrity database for Windows Update Agent installation and catalog files

——————————————————————————–

Mon 05/02/2016 13:41:26.90 – Info: Starting WSUS Offline Update download (v. 10.6.2) for w61-x64 glb
Mon 05/02/2016 13:41:26.92 – Info: Option /verify detected
Mon 05/02/2016 13:41:26.95 – Info: Option /exitonerror detected
Mon 05/02/2016 13:41:27.34 – Info: Set time zone to LOC5:00
wget: unable to resolve host address `download.wsusoffline.net’
wget: unable to resolve host address `download.wsusoffline.net’
Mon 05/02/2016 13:41:27.67 – Info: Updated static download and update definitions
Mon 05/02/2016 13:41:27.73 – Warning: Download of mkisofs tool failed
Mon 05/02/2016 13:41:28.12 – Info: Verified integrity of Windows Update Agent installation and catalog files
Mon 05/02/2016 13:41:31.91 – Error: Download failure for w61-x64 glb

I did stop as it was moving into the mkisofs tool download, because I just ran out of satellite allowance. So, has this worked correctly, even though WU hasn’t visibly increased the number of updates installed? I noticed that WSUS downloaded both a 32 bit and a 64 bit Update Agent, is that normal? I remember this laptop coming with both a 32 AND 64 bit IE- is that why this install is such a bugaboo?

Do I continue running this or do I try to use WU? WU is like, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, and no, it is still not working… just looping.

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Thanks for posting this. I’m hoping someone with a better knowledge of the situation can answer your question.

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How do you know when it’s finished all its updates? It keeps asking to reboot after only doing a few updates. Then it MUST install IE11 which now I can’t browse a particular site properly. I don’t understand why I need to install that crap to update security in Win7. But anyway, after IE11 installed, I had to reboot again. Then run the program a 3rd time, and it took about a good 45 minutes to complete everything, and when it finished it made a beeping sound and my screen turned black, I turned it back on and it said it was complete or something and its reverting its Power Options settings back to where it was.

So I’m assuming it installed everything? I don’t know! And I don’t want to run the program again. It’s a big, frustrating headache. WHY DOESN’T WINDOWS UPDATE WORK on its own? Windows is soooooooooooooooo stupid.

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Interesting. So now after all that crap, Windows update is working? lmao what a joke! and it had 2 critical updates for me. Spent 2 days on 4 different computers with this BS. I want to strangle Microsoft.

Luckily I was able to uninstall the IE11 update and revert to what I had. 🙂

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Wow, so this morning I decide to check Windows Update and it’s listing a security update for IE9, so I install it. Now it changed my desktop theme, got rid of my wallpaper and gave a blue background, added icons on the bottom and removed many program icons on the screen. I immediately did a sys restore to revert. What a joke! WTF are they doing over there!?

I think I’m just not gonna bother with these stupid updates. I didn’t have a problem before them, just after them. Make us jump through hoops and still have problems.

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This program stinks. The program doesn’t give any information on what to do next and it doesn’t explain things clearly. Why is it necessary to install this crap to download Win 7 security updates.

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I need some advice. I am having all kinds of problems with the regular windows updates for my W7/SP1 Home and Pro computers. It gets hung up on Searching for Updates or when it finds updates, it keeps saying downloading but staying at 0%. I did a repair/install of Windows and it worked for a month and now same thing.
My question: I assume I can use WSUS Offline. Do I specify SP1 when I d/l updates via WSUS? Also, lets say it d/l 400 updates bur 350 are already installed. Will it just install the remaining 50 and hence not take too long? If so, that may be my new way of updating my machines.

Mel

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@Melvin Billik,

You have commented on a blogpost/thread that is several months old, so most people here will not see it.

You may want to read the newer threads from the past month, which might give you some answers — after that, if you don’t find some info that will help you, you could maybe ask your question on one of this week’s threads.

WSUS Offline is a third-party program developed by a German technology magazine. Woody doesn’t officially give steps on how to use it to update Windows.

However, I think you may find lots of info that will help you with your updating situation in the most recent month’s blogposts and their associated discussion threads.

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@Melvin Billik,

I wrote a reply to your comment but it appears that I put it in slightly the wrong place in this thread — see below for my reply –>

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Did not see mention of this, but you can exclude any bad updates as well. Just add them to “…\wsusoffline\client\exclude\ExcludeList.txt”

Also there are some BAT files in “…\wsusoffline\cmd” to disable downloading updates in languages you don’t need.

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