Personally I HATE the new Post SP2 Requirements that Windows Update has on the services that are running. I never leave Automatic Updates Running (nor do I keep it Set to Automatic)...so every time I wanted to update windows through Windows Update, I had to go into my services and Set Automatic Updates, BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service) and the Event Reporting Service to Automatic, then start them all.......then I would run my updates, then go back and set everything back . Sound Familiar?

After finding Nothing on the internet (after hours of searching), I sat down and figured out on my own how to do this. I ended up writing a small batch file, that is very slick. What it does, is using dos commands it sets all of the 3 services needed for windows update to automatic, then it starts each service and, as a nice little touch I made it so that it autolaunches Windows Update.

Here it is.....just copy/paste this into notepad and name the File whatever you want...but put a .bat at the end of it (so if you named the file Update, you would need to type update.bat ) Save to somewhere where you can find the file.




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%\system32\wupdmgr.exe




Now to use it, simply double click on the file you created and voila, your services will configure and Windows update will launch.

To revert back (after you are done with Windows Update) there is a separate batch file. So, Save this in a separate notepad file and again name the file whatever you want ...but put a .bat at the end of it




sc config wuauserv start= disabled
sc config BITS start= demand
sc stop wuauserv
sc stop BITS




Note that the stop file sets the Background Intelligent Transfer Service to Manual and Disables the Automatic Updates Service and it stops both services. Note that The Error Reporting Service Should Remain in Automatic so for that reason it is not listed in the 2nd batch file...

Gee that almost looks like basic and I can read it (showing my age here)