@Ian – That’s pretty much the same thing as the standard Windows Update though.

@Claus – Look perfect…unfortunately I don’t think they support Vista yet.

@Mohan – Jumping on to the Linux side of the fence is one way to throw this back in Microsoft face.

[heise-security.co.uk]

It is very slick.

Download the application and install it.

When you run it, you can select to download the patches for either XP, 2000, or 2003 Server operating systems.

You can select which language localizations you want.

You can select to have the update packages rolled into individual ISO files for burning to their own removable media disks, or roll them all together (probably want to use a DVD media for this one) into a single one.

It uses a “wget” DOS app to download the current update catalog(s) for the platforms selected, then uses that to download the patches/updates directly from the Microsoft Update servers.

The first download/run/build takes a while as you are getting them all at one time. However you can re-run it when you want and then only any new or updated patches are downloaded so those are rolled up much faster.

It’s a great, tiny and slick system.

Worth checking out since Autopatcher might be retired now.

Link to download most current version of heise Security Offline Update (page in German)
[heise.de]

Link to the overview of the program and its features (English-four pages)
[heise-security.co.uk]

Cheers!

Here’s a little snipped from their about page:

“About WindizUpdate

This free website allows users of Mozilla Firefox 0.9.3, Netscape 4.0, Mozilla Firebird 0.7, Opera 5, or K-Meleon 0.9 to keep their copy of Windows up-to-date. Newer releases of these browsers are also suitable.

To use this site, you’ll need to install the free plugin.

Established in Jan 2005, there has been sufficient opportunity for the plugin to be added to the database of your favorite antivirus or adware scanner (if it was dangerous) — so make sure your definitions are up-to-date before continuing.”