Article: Windows Update Batch File We all know that Windows Update provides the latest updates, patches, security fixes, drivers and more for your Microsoft based Operating System. To access windows update, all one had to do was go to the website and click on the scan button and Windows Update would scan the system display the missing updates. Once the user chose which updates they wanted (and clicked the install button), Windows Update would download and install.
Late in 2004, Microsoft changed things in Windows Update. Windows Update now has requirements in place which requires 3 system services be set in a specific way. The 3 services are, Automatic Updates, BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service), & Event Log. Failure to have them running and set to Automatic results in the following error screen:
I for one do not like anything installing onto my computer without my knowledge. Leaving the Automatic Updates in Automatic mode is allowing Microsoft to install things onto my computer without my knowledge, so for me, I always like this disabled. Of course this means I occasionally have to go and check the Windows Update Site for Updates, but I’d rather do that than allow anything to be installed without my knowledge. Many people feel the same way when it comes to Automatic Updates.
Now that Microsoft has made it a requirement when accessing Windows Update, it is a major annoyance for those of us who prefer to keep Automatic Updates Off. We have to go and turn on Automatic Updates (and the other two services, BITS service and Event Log), then we can update our system. After updating, we have to go back and disable Automatic Updates.
This annoyed me so much that I finally decided to come up with an easier, faster way to start the required services. To do this, first open up notepad, then type the following:
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sc config wuauserv start= auto
sc config BITS start= auto
sc config ERSvc start= auto
sc start wuauserv
sc start BITS
sc start ERSvc
start %SystemRoot%system32wupdmgr.exe
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Then save the file and name it whatever you want, but make sure to end the file name with .bat So for example my file is named:
StartServicesForWindowsUpdate.bat
Then you need a batch file to stop the services after you are done updating. To do this, open notepad again, then type the following:
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sc config wuauserv start= disabled
sc config BITS start= demand
sc stop wuauserv
sc stop BITS
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This stops the BITS service and sets it to manual mode and it stops the Windows Update Service and sets it to disabled. The Event Log service should be kept running.
Then save the file and name it whatever you want, but make sure to end the file name with .bat So for example my file is named:
StopServicesForWindowsUpdate.bat
Save these files wherever you want. I keep mine on my start menu for quick access. To do this I simply drag the icon to the start menu:
Edited July 14, 2006 - Recently, Microsoft had silently post a beta version of the Windows Genuine Advantage Tool to Windows Update as a Critical Update. For those of you who are not familiar with this tool, basically what it does is check if the version of Windows being run is legitimate (if it determines that the version is not legitimate it generates annoying pop up messages alerting the user to purchase a valid copy of Windows), and it sends information back to the Microsoft servers regularly. Since it was a Critical Update, this was pushed out to all systems that had Automatic Updates turned on. A few days later, Microsoft released instructions on how to remove the WGA (however, these instructions were not pushed out to all the systems that had Automatic Updates, instead it was placed on their website. So only those looking for it would find it.).
There were many, many people who reported that the WGA was reporting their version of Windows as not being valid, when it in fact was valid. Of course, this problem only affected those people who had Automatic Updates turned on (and those who manually went to Windows Update).
I do not understand why anyone would want to allow Microsoft or any other company the privledge of being able to install something on their computer without their knowledge. Luckily for me, since I had long ago determined that having Automatic
Updates on, to be a bad thing, which led to the creation of this batch
file, I did not have to worry about anything.
