best way to reinstall XP and update 2

[RodP]

Hi Everyone,

I may have to reinstall my windows XP SP2 from the CD. I'm ok about reinstalling all my software but I'm conscious that as it's now a number of years old (even from the service Pack 2 edition) so there are going to be 'alot' of patches and updates that will need to be installed.

I've found sometimes downloading many patches in one go can cause problems and so I'm thinking I might have to install a couple of patches / updates at a time.

Can anyone recommend a better way or 'the best way'?

Many thanks

RodP

 

[Glenn9999]

As you might expect, there are a huge number of updates. If you wish, I can enumerate them for you offline (the list I have is quite lengthy), but I'll give you a few pointers.

1. There's been a lot of free "add-ons" that have been done by Microsoft since service pack 2. Some will come up in Windows Update, a lot won't though. Those include Windows Defender, .NET 3.0, Windows Media Player 11, Internet Explorer 7, and two or three other things that are escaping my mind at the moment.

2. At my last count, I had around 160 patches and enhancements on file plus other stuff. Windows Update will handle it all okay, but if you try to download all the updates and do it offline, it can be a pain. I ended up making a program to do this for me, and I shared it. You can find it here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=96854&mode=linearplus

3. Speaking of Windows Update, don't have anything to do with it until you inform yourself about patch #905474, so you can have some informed consent on whether you want it on your system. It's not an "essential security update", but in reality spyware in many peoples (including my own) views. Since I offline update everything, I don't know if Windows Update will force that patch onto you or not, so you might be watchful of WU and Automatic Updates.

4. If you download for offline patching, Windows Update Catalog should handle most of what you need.

 

[RodP]

Hi Glenn9999,

Thanks for the reply and you're tips. I've had a quick look at your program and it looks like this will save alot of time for me. One thing though, I'm conscious that I should ensure updates are run in chronological order as much as possible. With reference to the updates you mentioned that require user intervention, is there a way to make your program allow user intervention for specific updates or would i need to setup a directory with the updates only that occur before the one that requires user intervention?

A compiled list of updates would be really useful too. How do you want to send them to me, do you want my email address? How can I send it to you without posting it on tek-tips?

Many thanks in advance

RodP

 

[Glenn9999]

One thing though, I'm conscious that I should ensure updates are run in chronological order as much as possible. With reference to the updates you mentioned that require user intervention, is there a way to make your program allow user intervention for specific updates or would i need to setup a directory with the updates only that occur before the one that requires user intervention?

Generally, Windows XP SP2 will handle itself well when it comes to making sure the latest version of the files are installed. If a Windows version doesn't handle that, QCHAIN.EXE handles it, and that's why that requirement is in place for the program. Therefore, there's little need to have to install patches in chronological order.

As far as the "updates that require user intervention" goes, it depends on the patch. Some will run just fine, but will require you to go through the menus, install it, then say you don't reboot. Others won't run at all with the proper switches. A start is to do the selection part of the program and then after you run those patches, look at the log for any mentions of a patch "not being a valid patch".

One thing I did remember for when you reload Windows XP: Service Pack 2 changed the activation process, so if you upgraded to service pack 2 (as opposed to the CD being SP2), you will need to be sure to do the activation first.

A compiled list of updates would be really useful too. How do you want to send them to me, do you want my email address? How can I send it to you without posting it on tek-tips?

As far as prerequisites go, the list I will include here should explain it. I didn't think about the policies of this board so I will just include a link to the list I made of the patches I run. A few of the patches can be dropped since subsequent versions will upgrade them (mainly the IE6/IE7 stuff).

The link (it's an Excel file):

http://download.yousendit.com/B78B33AD22A951DA

To explain how I've been using that program, you will see on the spreadsheet there's three lists. "Addons", "Run First", and "Rest of Patches". What I generally do is run the "Run First" pile, then the add-ons that have patches (.NET, IE7, WMP11), then the "Rest of Patches" pile. I include the others first because they need to be installed & the system rebooted before some of the other patches will work.

The "Run First" pile has the prerequisite patches in it, primarily involving the validations and installer services Microsoft uses for its patches and other things.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[linney]

With fast Internet download speeds, recovering updates from a XP SP2 re-install, is not that time consuming anymore, and maybe less time consuming than setting up (learning) a batch program to automatically do it for you. (Sorry about that Glenn9999, no offense intended, your helpful suggestions are really appreciated and still well worthy of consideration and you should be congratulated and praised for sharing your program with us).

Windows Automatic Updates handles multiple downloaded updates expertly and seamlessly with little or no imput from the user.

I have in the past used this program which seems similar to Glenn9999's.

RyanVM's Windows XP Post-SP2 Update Pack

http://www.ryanvm.net/msfn/updatepack.html

But now with a faster download speed I am getting lazy.

 

[RodP]

Thanks very much Glenn9999 & Linney for your valuable input. A star to you both!!

Am looking forward to resintalling XP now!

Cheers

RodP

 

[Glenn9999]

With fast Internet download speeds, recovering updates from a XP SP2 re-install, is not that time consuming anymore, and maybe less time consuming than setting up (learning) a batch program to automatically do it for you.

Well, reasons I go with offline updates and do that program I did:
1. I have a CD (and a bit more) full of these things now (including the XP service pack 2 updater). Still would be time-consuming to download these things multiple times. I do an XP reload, pull out the CD, and run the updater. If I miss any updates (usually just because I didn't download them the last patch tuesday or two), I download those and I have them for the next time.

2. Was a bit time-consuming to do the program, but I figured for what time savings I've gotten, it's paid off. Setting up the batch files is what prompted me to try this. As long as Microsoft doesn't change their patching schemes beyond the 3 or 4 they already have (can we say "lack of standardization"?), it'll be fine not withstanding the "exception" patches.

3. For what I've seen, I don't know of too many things that address an installed XP system instead of integrating patch files into a new install.

BTW, thanks for some of the links you gave once upon a time - that helped on making the program.

 

[linney]

I haven't had to do many re-installs, I find on the rare occasion it might be necessary, it is much easier to rely on my regularly made partition images, which take about 20 minutes to create and the same amount of time to restore.