One of my biggest irks with Windows is that every time you reinstall your operating system, you need to download all the updates again. Autopatcher was a great solution which allowed even people without an internet connection to stay updated. Unfortunately, the project had to be stopped due to objections raised by Microsoft.

However, you can easily create your own Windows Update deployment tool using c’t Offline Update. Offline Update allows you to download all Windows updates released by Microsoft and create offline installer for deploying them on machines without internet connections.

Using Offline Update is extremely straight forward and would be appreciated by users who find nLite/vLite daunting. Simply start the Update Generator and select your operating system and language. Offline Update supports Windows 2000, XP and Vista. Windows 7 isn’t yet supported, however the tool is being actively developed and hopefully Windows 7 support will come soon. You can optionally include or exclude Windows Service Pack and .Net Framework.

Offline Update can be used for creating ISO images which can be burned into a CD or DVD. Alternatively, you can deploy the Offline Updates using USB Drives. You can even download and create Offline Updater for Microsoft Office 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007 using c’t Offline Update.

[ Download c’t Offline Update ]