7 replies to this topic

[Mike Rochip]

I was trying to recreate the 'phantom user' issue on my PC and to test my theory I manually added a bogus user ID to the SAM and Security hives in the registry. BAD IDEA !

Anyway, after having the sign-in screen come up blank with no way to log into Windows I decided to reinstall Windows. For some insane reason I could not manually download updates because the update site would only work if Automatic Updates was enabled which caused CPU usage to peg at 100% because of an issue with svchost.exe. Although other people have had this issue no-one seems to have found a solution. Things did get better after SP2 was finally downloaded but it was a frustrating couple of days to do it. [Dialup].

Is it possible to download the updates and save them so as not to have to download them again in the future if I decide to do something else as stupid? In other words if I have to reinstall Windows could I install the updates from saved files on the PC rather than from the update site?

On the bright side my theory as to what caused her issue was right.

I also noticed DjLizard has an easy fix that would have fixed the issue I created by using the recovery console but I couldn't access Ccleaner until I had reloaded Windows. I seem to learn only by doing things the hard way .

Also, does anyone know if there is an application that causes snakes or fire or loud swear words to come out of the PC if you try to do stupid things to the registry? I could really use it.

[Andavari]

If you would of had something like Avira NTFS4DOS (bootdisk) couple with WinRescue XP's bootdisk (commercial software) you could have restored a WinRescue XP registry backup via the bootdisks. Live and learn, and don' t jeopardize your main system just to test something instead do that on another non-critical PC.

[Mike Rochip]

Good advice. This time I'll listen to it!

I'm still wondering if you can download updates in a way they can be saved and reinstalled later.

I Googled "saving Windows updates" and it looks like it's easy enough to do but it must be done prior to installing the updates.

tech-recipes

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article

Windows Update Catalog
[Alternative WU site, allows saving updates to PC before installing them]

So I guess this answers my question unless I can find a way to redownload the updates without reinstalling Windows.

[Andavari]

Mike Rochip, on Aug 16 2006, 02:47 AM, said:

I'm still wondering if you can download updates in a way they can be saved and reinstalled later.

With the mode/mood Microsoft is in nowadays with WGA and all I don't know. I noticed that the security updates are only available via Automatic Updates, Windows Update, and Microsoft Update.

Perhaps they still offer them on a CD. I don't know if they do or not because the last one I have is from 2004 which updated everything from Windows 98 to Windows XP.

[JohnDemolition]

i think that this program can do what you want. but it requires the .net framework

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Down...ownloader.shtml

[Andavari]

JohnDemolition, on Aug 16 2006, 01:52 PM, said:

i think that this program can do what you want. but it requires the .net framework

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Down...ownloader.shtml

Looks interesting, especially for creating a Windows Updates CD just for archival purposes. .NET Framework is required by allot of apps nowadays, luckily I don't have to download v1.0, or v2.0 anymore since I have them on CD-R.

Although when installing Windows Updates even on a dial-up it's just a matter of letting it download all the updates while sleeping, that's what I did back in Sep 2005 and when I woke up all I had to do was reboot.

[JohnDemolition]

it's true that the .net framework is widely used nowadays but a lot of people don't like it because it takes up a LOT of space. i've even heard it takes up more space than OpenOfice.

[Tarun]

Autopatcher also contains all of the updates (ever) and allows you to manually install them.