INTRODUCTION
We recommend that only advanced users and administrators download updates from the Windows Update Catalog. If you are not an advanced user or an administrator, you can download and install updates directly from the following Microsoft Web site:
Note The Windows Update Catalog is not available when you use a Microsoft Windows NT 4.0-based computer to visit the Windows Update Web site. Windows NT 4.0 updates are not available for download from the Windows Update Catalog when you visit the Windows Update Web site or the Microsoft Update Web site by using a computer that is running Microsoft Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003.
MORE INFORMATION
Access the Windows Update Catalog
To access the Windows Update Catalog, use one of the following
methods.
Note You can only use Method 2 if your computer is running Windows 98 or Windows Millennium Edition.
Method 1: Access the Windows Update Catalog directly
To access the Windows Update Catalog directly, visit the following
Microsoft Web site:
Method 2: Add the Windows Update Catalog to the update Web site
To add a link to the Windows Update Catalog to the update
Web site, you must personalize the site. To do this, follow these steps.
- Visit the Windows Update Web site or visit the Microsoft Update Web site:
- Click Personalize Windows
Update.
- Click to select the Display the link to the Windows
Update Catalog under See Also check box.
- Click Save Settings.
- Click the Windows Update Catalog link
under See Also.
Download Windows updates from the Windows Update Catalog
- Access the Windows Update Catalog. For more information, see
the "Access the Windows Update Catalog" section to add driver updates to your download
basket.
- Click Go to download basket.
- In the Type or browse to the download location of
your choice box, either type the full path for the folder where you
want to save the update or click Browse to locate the
folder.
- Click Download Now, and then click
Accept to accept the license agreement.
All the items that you selected are downloaded, and then your
download history appears.
Download driver updates from the Windows Update Catalog
- Access the Windows Update Catalog. For more information, see
the "Access the Windows Update Catalog" section.
- Click Find hardware driver updates, or
click Find driver updates for hardware devices.
- Click the appropriate hardware category for the driver
update that you want to download.
- Click the manufacturer name, the operating system, the
language, and any other items that you want to search for, and then click
Search.
- Locate the driver that you want, and then click
Add.
- Repeat steps 2 through 5 to find and add more driver
updates to your download basket, or follow the steps in the
"Download Windows updates from the Windows Update Catalog" section to add driver updates to your download
basket..
- Click Go to download basket.
- In the Type or browse to the download location of
your choice box, either type the full path for the folder where you
want to save the update or click Browse to locate the
folder.
- Click Download Now, and then click
Accept to accept the license agreement.
All the items that you selected are downloaded, and then your
download history appears.
Locate your downloads
The location of each downloaded item appears in your download
history. The location of each downloaded item automatically appears after your download is completed. To
sort your previous updates by date or description, click the column
headers.
To access your download history, follow these
steps:
- Access the Windows Update Catalog. For more information, see
the "Access the Windows Update Catalog" section.
- Click View download history.
Note Your download history is stored in the Iuhist_catalogAdmin.xml
file in your Program Files\WindowsUpdate\V4 folder.
You can use the
download history to locate an item, or you can browse for the item.
Windows updates are saved to a Software subfolder in the location that you specified in step 7
of the "Download Windows updates from the Windows Update Catalog" section. A language subfolder
(for example, "EN" for English) is created for each language, and a
manufacturer.
product
subfolder (for example, Com_microsoft.WindowsXP for Windows XP) is created for
each manufacturer and product. An operating system subfolder (for example, x86WinXP for
Windows XP) is created for each operating system, and then a subfolder is created for
each update.
Driver updates are saved to a Driver subfolder in the
location that you specified in step 8 of the "Download driver updates from the Windows Update Catalog"
section. A language subfolder (for example, "EN" for English)
is created for each language, and a
manufacturer.
hardware
category subfolder (for example, Com_microsoft_whql.monitors for
monitor drivers) is created for each manufacturer and category of driver. An operating system subfolder (for example, X86WinXP for Windows XP) is created for each
operating system, and then a subfolder is created for each driver.
Use Software
Update Services
IT Professionals can use both Windows Update and the Automatic
Updates service to configure a server on their corporate network to provide
these updates to corporate servers and clients. This functionality can be
useful in environments where some clients and servers do not have access to the
Internet, or where the environment is highly managed and the
corporate administrator must test the updates before they are deployed. For information about Software Update Services, visit the following Microsoft Web
site:
For Microsoft TechNet information about how to perform
enterprise-wide driver updates by using Windows Update, visit the following
Microsoft Web site:
Use Automatic Updates and Critical Update Notification
You can use the Automatic Updates feature and the Critical Update Notification utility
to keep computers up to date with the latest critical updates. IT Professionals can also use the Automatic Updates feature to
keep Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows 2000 Advanced
Server (Service Pack 2 or later), Windows XP Professional, and Windows XP Home
Edition computers up to date with the latest critical updates from a corporate
network server that is running Software Update Services.
For more information about how to use Automatic Updates in Windows XP, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
306525
How to configure and use Automatic Updates in Windows XP
For more information about how to use Automatic Updates in Windows 2000, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
327850
How to configure and use Automatic Updates in Windows 2000
For more information about how to use Automatic Updates in Windows Millennium Edition, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
268331
Description of Automatic Updates in Windows Millennium Edition (Me)
For more information about the Critical Update Notification utility
for Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 computers, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
224420
Description of the Windows Critical Update Notification utility
Troubleshooting
You may experience one or more of the following issues when you use Windows Update or Microsoft Update:
- You may receive the following error message:
Software update incomplete, this
Windows Update software did not update successfully.
For more information about this
issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
319585
"Software update incomplete" error message when you visit the Windows Update Web site
- You may receive the following error message:
Administrators Only
(-2146828218) To install items from Windows Update, you must be logged on as an
administrator or a member of the Administrators group. If your computer is
connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from
completing this procedure.
For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
316524
You receive an "Administrators only" error message when you try to visit the Windows Update Web site or the Microsoft Update Web site
- You may not be able to view the Windows Update site or the Microsoft Update site if you
connect to the Web site through an authenticating Web proxy that uses
integrated (NTLM) proxy authentication.
REFERENCES
Visit the following Microsoft Web sites for information
about other resources for obtaining and distributing downloads from Windows Update or from Microsoft Update.
Installing multiple updates with only one restart
The hotfix installer included with Microsoft Windows XP and
Windows 2000 post-Service Pack 3 (SP3) updates includes functionality to
support multiple hotfix installations. For earlier versions of Windows 2000
and Windows NT 4.0, command-line tool named QChain.exe is available for
download.
For more information
about how to install multiple updates or multiple hotfixes without restarting the computer between each installation, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
296861
How to install multiple Windows updates or hotfixes with only one reboot
Microsoft security resources
For the latest Microsoft security resources such as security tools, security bulletins, virus alerts, and general security guidance, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
For more information about the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer tool (MBSA), visit the following Microsoft Web site:
The Microsoft Download Center
For more information about how to download files from the Microsoft Download Center, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
119591
How to obtain Microsoft support files from online services
Product-specific download pages
Windows XP
For Windows XP downloads, visit the following
Microsoft Web site:
Windows 2000
For Windows 2000 downloads, visit the
following Microsoft Web site:
Internet Explorer
For Internet Explorer downloads, visit the following Microsoft Web
site:
Windows Media Player
For Windows Media Player downloads, visit the following Microsoft
Web site:
Office
Updates
For Office updates, visit the following Microsoft Web
site: