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Windows 7 Unofficial Update Rollup (WIP)


LightAlpha263

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LINK TO ORIGINAL FORUM:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/175691-vague-intention-of-unofficial-sp2-for-windows-7/

INFORMATION:
I am working on an Unofficial Update Rollup for Windows 7 SP1, primarily designed to help easily update fresh installs of Windows 7 SP1 and for when Windows 7 goes unsupported, help to add more unofficial packages and utilities one would need after the EOL date passes to keep running Windows 7. The link above are the first posts on the matter, and I have gotten far enough to decide to keep going with this project. I recognize that there are several people out there trying to do the same, and I would like to cooperate with them. My project, however, is mostly designed to help for when the EOL date happens, though I guess I can put to use 4, maybe 3 years in advance.

The project relies upon scripts, Batch and VBS, to run itself, and the Windows Application musa.exe to install the .msu (really .cab with a different file extension) files. Detailed documentation will be posted on an external website soon.

The project is currently a WIP. No download links will be provided until the project's basic function works.

This project is OPEN SOURCE, partially because I have no choice since I'm using scripts that can be edited or copied through notepad, partially because I want it to be. (I bet I could figure out how to lock the installer, but I won't try yet unless I feel someone might just copy this project and say they did it themselves ).

DOWNLOAD LINKS:

None at the moment. As mentioned above, when the project reaches an actually usable state, then I upload it.

MORE INFORMATION:

-If you'd like to know more earlier into the project, you can PM me, and I'll probably answer whatever question about this project you have.

-The update cycle will be monthly unless otherwise stated (as said above).

-Version number is: V0.2 (Alpha).

-I'm downloading all the updates now. I have no idea when I'll be done, because I'm very busy in real life.

OFF-TOPIC THINGS:
Much of the inspiration for this project comes about 50% from the "Convenience Rollup" that Microsoft made in May 2016, and about 50% from Tomaz's Windows 2000 Unofficial Service Pack 5.2. Here's a link to the forum for the Windows 2000 USP5.2: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/156521-unofficial-sp-52-for-microsoft-windows-2000-wip.

Here's to more preserving of older versions of Windows NT *clink*.

 

"Why hasn't there been an unofficial update something for NT 4.0? Perhaps we'll never know. I guess 5.X and 6.X are more special.

Just kidding, I like NT4 a lot, but it's too old and pointless to make a rollup for that, much less how to find the updates." -LightAlpha263 (2016).

 

Edited by LightAlpha263
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I just wanted to wish you good luck (and offer support if there is anything I can help with)!

Although Windows 7 is still well supported by M$ right now, this project may become vital once the official support and the official updates are not there any more.

If possible, please make the rollup multilanguage so that it can be used in any language version of Windows 7 (this should be much easier to do in NT 6.x than in NT 5.x).

Edited by tomasz86
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11 hours ago, tomasz86 said:

I just wanted to wish you good luck (and offer support if there is anything I can help with)!

Although Windows 7 is still well supported by M$ right now, this project may become vital once the official support and the official updates are not there any more.

If possible, please make the rollup multilanguage so that it can be used in any language version of Windows 7 (this should be much easier to do in NT 6.x than in NT 5.x).

Thanks. I will attempt to make it multi-language.

And yeah, I am in the process of downloading the updates into their folders now.

Edited by LightAlpha263
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On 6/13/2016 at 4:03 PM, LightAlpha263 said:

And yeah, I am in the process of downloading the updates into their folders now.

Any help with downloading the over 200 security updates (with hotfixes) would be helpful. Option 1 would be to go onto "Installed Updates" in WU in Win7 and go to the support links, downloading from there. However, there is a possibility I might download a replaced update for some reason. Option 2 is onto the Microsoft Update Catalog. However, finding and downloading updates there is tedious. Slow. Tedious.

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11 hours ago, LightAlpha263 said:

Any help with downloading the over 200 security updates (with hotfixes) would be helpful. Option 1 would be to go onto "Installed Updates" in WU in Win7 and go to the support links, downloading from there. However, there is a possibility I might download a replaced update for some reason. Option 2 is onto the Microsoft Update Catalog. However, finding and downloading updates there is tedious. Slow. Tedious.

What is wrong with the Update Catalog?

It may be a little clunky but it is still probably the fastest method to download the updates. Just add all of them to the basket and then download at once!

PS. The catalog seems to work best with IE6. This is not a joke :D. I have had problems with it in IE11 under Windows 7, but it is working flawlessly in IE6 under Windows 2000.

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1 hour ago, tomasz86 said:

PS. The catalog seems to work best with IE6. This is not a joke :D. I have had problems with it in IE11 under Windows 7, but it is working flawlessly in IE6 under Windows 2000.

So I guess I'll download the updates via a netbook on Windows 2000 (with IE6). When I was looking at the catalog, I had it with Windows 7 and IE11. If it is a joke (which I'd not be surprised), very funny joke. Funny story: Adding HTTPS sites under the trusted sites in Internet Options on IE6 loads HTTPS sites, making IE6 very fast and reliable. (Partially no joke ;))

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Not a joke at all! :ph34r:

I have been downloading Windows 2000 updates to get direct links (using URL Snooper for that) from the Update Catalog. IE6 really seems to work best, probably because the site was likely written for this particular browser.

Edited by tomasz86
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You might want to check out WHDownloader - http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/66243-WHDownloader-Download - and the WHD list maintained by abbodi1406 referenced here - http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/44645-WHDownloader-Support-and-chat/page259?p=1169513#post1169513.  I did a Windows 7 Ultimate x64 installation a couple of weeks ago starting with a MSDN SP1 source then used those tools along with abbodi1406's updates installer script to begin the update process.  I also did not like the idea of using the "convenience" rollup for the same reasons you don't.  I chose to install all the updates I could find except language packs, WAT, and Windows 10 related.  Even after using abbodi1406's script MU/WU still found many more updates available, but it was a wonderful starting point. ( I currently have 657 updates installed. )  The WHDownloader will download the updates in the lists very, very quickly, and then you can use whatever method you chose to install them.  It would be great if you are able to figure out how to create a rolllup from them, since the installation process using abbodi1406's script and then WU/MU takes a long, long time, several hours altogether.  The rollup would also end up taking less installed space and be easier to deal with - all the advantages that MS touts for its existing convenience rollup.

Good luck in your project!

Cheers and Regards

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11 hours ago, bphlpt said:

You might want to check out WHDownloader - http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/66243-WHDownloader-Download - and the WHD list maintained by abbodi1406 referenced here - http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/44645-WHDownloader-Support-and-chat/page259?p=1169513#post1169513.  I did a Windows 7 Ultimate x64 installation a couple of weeks ago starting with a MSDN SP1 source then used those tools along with abbodi1406's updates installer script to begin the update process.  I also did not like the idea of using the "convenience" rollup for the same reasons you don't.  I chose to install all the updates I could find except language packs, WAT, and Windows 10 related.  Even after using abbodi1406's script MU/WU still found many more updates available, but it was a wonderful starting point. ( I currently have 657 updates installed. )  The WHDownloader will download the updates in the lists very, very quickly, and then you can use whatever method you chose to install them.  It would be great if you are able to figure out how to create a rolllup from them, since the installation process using abbodi1406's script and then WU/MU takes a long, long time, several hours altogether.  The rollup would also end up taking less installed space and be easier to deal with - all the advantages that MS touts for its existing convenience rollup.

Good luck in your project!

Cheers and Regards

I'll check that out, thanks!

On 6/19/2016 at 0:09 PM, tomasz86 said:

Not a joke at all! :ph34r:

I have been downloading Windows 2000 updates to get direct links (using URL Snooper for that) from the Update Catalog. IE6 really seems to work best, probably because the site was likely written for this particular browser.

I have already tried this out, and you're not lying!

My planned method of downloading the updates goes like this:

1. Go into Windows Update (on Windows 7) and checking the "Installed Updates" section.

2. Go to my Windows 2000 computer with IE6 on the Microsoft Update Catalog and typing in the KB number of that update.

3. Click "Add" for both the 32 and 64 bit versions of the update.

5. When I have to go, keep track of the last I update I downloaded in a text document and download all the updates.

6. Repeat until all updates have been downloaded.

One might ask: why not download all the updates at once? I answer: after exiting IE6 because of the inevitbility that I'll have to be somewhere else, the updates aren't saved. By downloading like this, I can keep better track of the updates (such as knowing what was the last update I downloaded) and not lose a ton of updates that would've otherwise been downloaded.

I will consider the WHDownloader if the method above doesn't seem to work good, since I have tested it.

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Just FYI, I was able to download the complete WHDownloader available hotfix selections in about 30-45 minutes, IIRC.  And the hotfix's able to be downloaded are not impacted by what is installed on your system.  WHDownloader on its own is a downloader, not an installer.  So personally, based on my good experiences with the downloading ability of WHDownloader, I would suggest doing things the other way around than what you have proposed.  I'd let WHDownloader get everything it can, all automated, then get the rest of the updates you need in the manner you outlined.  But that's just me. :)

Cheers and Regards

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I actually have a better idea.

If I could divide the workload among several people (I download security updates, someone downloads hotfixes, so on), I could actually have the updates ready in a faster amount of time due to much of my limited free-time being spent not downloading updates but organizing them and getting the installer to install them.


Anyone who would like to apply for this, PM me.

-Be 100% sure you've downloaded ALL the updates for your given category.

-Name the update based on its KB number when downloading and whether or not it is 32 or 64 bit. Format: KBXXXXXXX_x32, KBXXXXXXX_x64

-Divide the updates into 32-bit and 64-bit folders.

-Upload a zip file of the updates (with the two folders inside) to any file-hosting service and PM me the link.

-Windows 7 is still a supported OS, and so it still receives updates from Microsoft. In the zip file, include the date of the most recent update you have downloaded so I can keep downloading such updates. If you'd like to continue providing update, that would be great. If you want to, just keep updating the zip file and I'll check monthly for any updates inside it.

By no means does anyone have to do this, I'm fine continuing downloading the updates by myself. It'd just be very convenient for the project. :)

In other news: I'll keep with the catalog method for Windows security updates. I'll try to see if WHDownloader can do other kinds of updates.

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We can't do it that way here.  Using WHDownloader is fine because the user ends up downloading all of the updates themselves directly from Microsoft.

I'm curious how far along you have gotten downloading the updates with your described method over the last two and a half weeks?  And why you have not tried actually using WHDownloader yet?  I ask because I just downloaded a fresh copy of WHDownloader, put it in an empty folder, D:\WHD, downloaded a fresh copy of the download lists, selected the Windows 7 x64 list. selected all available updates, and clicked download. Downloading all of the updates was completely automated and took about a half an hour.  I then selected the Windows 7 x86 list, selected all available updates, and clicked download.  Downloading all of the updates took less than half an hour. The end result is D:\WHD having 1281 files in it, taking up 5,841,899,614 bytes.  The updates are all named correctly (ending in either -x64 or -x86), the files are stored in x64 and x84 folders, and within those folders the updates are sorted into various categories such as General. Hotfix, Security, Extra, Additional, etc, along with text files that explain what some of the different categories are for.  What took the longest to download was the convenience updates because of their size, and maybe because of the demand for them, I don't know.  I don't plan on using them, but I went ahead and downloaded them just to have a complete set of updates. If you don't want any particular updates then don't select them and downloading will be quicker and will take less space. Once you have downloaded the updates one month, when the lists are updated the next month the only things that are downloaded are what is new or missing, taking much, much less time.  You can download updates en mass like I did or one at a time if you prefer.  It all depends on what you select before you click download.

If, like me, you couldn't figure out where to get the download lists, here's the trick.  When you run WHDownloader.exe, click the little box in the upper left corner.  That's it, it will download all of the available lists and you can select the one you want to use in the pull-down.

TRY IT!

Let us know if you have any problems.

If you are unwilling to use WHDownloader, or one of the other available download tools, then I'm really curious as to why.  And if you haven't gotten very far in downloading updates over the last two and a half weeks, then I'm concerned about your true intentions.  I can understand that you're busy with other things, but ... I have no problem at all in helping you, but besides being against MSFN policies, it would take far longer to zip and upload the updates and you to download them, than for you to just download them yourself using my above described method.

Good luck with your project and I truly hope you are able to complete it.

Cheers and Regards

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9 hours ago, bphlpt said:

We can't do it that way here.  Using WHDownloader is fine because the user ends up downloading all of the updates themselves directly from Microsoft.

I'll download the updates today with WHDownloader under the assumption that it will download ALL of the updates. The previous method is not too intuitive (with my schedule) and with this last post, I'm hoping that all of the updates are going to be downloaded.

I hope WHDownloader will do the trick, because I am fully relying on it now :)

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I have downloaded all 64 bit updates for Windows 7 via WHDownloader.

I realize there are folders for everything, but:

1. In the "Windows7-x64\Extra\WithoutKB3125574\#Security" folder, there's 103 updates, rather than the 16 in the Security Folder.

2. In the "Windows7-x64\Extra\WithoutKB3125574\#Hotfix" folder, there's 290 updates, rather than 11 in the Hotfix folder.

3. So on.

I'm going to make a good assumption via the text files I've read to believe that the updates in the regular Security, Hotfix, so on folders are what you install after either:

A. The convenience rollup.

B. The updates in the "Extra\WithoutKB3125574" folder.

If I go with B, then assume I move all the contents of the "#Security" into the "Security" folder (I'm assuming you get the point) and move the "Security" folder to the place where I have the update rollup.

I hope this is correct, but I'd just like to make sure.

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