How To: Download and store Windows 7 updates

Most users who have been using Microsoft Windows will agree that a virus, corrupted software or crashed hardware can ruin your operating system within minutes. Restoring the entire system again means taking complete backups, formatting the hard drive, reinstalling the operating system, installing an antivirus, reinstalling all software and then restoring all the data. Not to forget, updating the operating system from the Internet is an effort to the hard work you have already put in. This is definitely tedious and takes a lot of time, but there is no alternative unless you employ a utility that will take a complete screenshot of the working system and back up the entire drive on another medium or drive. Using these utilities will save you a lot of time and all the effort that go into it. What about those who did not take a backup of the working operating system?

Install the WUD utility

While taking backups, formatting the hard drive and reinstalling the operating system will have to be done any which way, you can at least be assured that downloading and installing updates for the operating system from the Internet will not take up much of your valuable time and money. All you need to do is download the necessary and relevant updates from the Internet for your operating system and store them safely on an external disk or network location. After reinstalling Windows again, you can simply install the updates from the downloaded files—there is no need to spend money and time downloading them again from the Internet. This method is great, but the Microsoft servers don’t give out the updates in a single package (unless it is a service pack release). The Windows Automatic Update feature will download and install the updates immediately but won’t allow you to store them for future use. You will need a third party utility that can pick out all or the required update files from the server and store them locally, which can be used and reused time and again. This method or utility is also beneficial for small to large scale businesses to enable them to update all their PCs’ operating systems with a single download, thus saving on time and expensive Internet bandwidth costs. The utility can also be beneficial for computer service personnel who have to install Windows updates at a client’s place, especially when the Internet connection is slow or costly. Moreover, this utility can prove very crucial for those who have an erratic Internet connection with constant line breaks or downtimes. Read on to find out how you can do it.

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Download the UL files and save them locally

Choose the UL files for your updates

Dialogue box states the UL file is installed

To download and store the Windows update files onto your PC, you need a simple and free utility called ‘Windows Updates Downloader’ or WUD. Download the utility from the website ‘ www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com’ and run it. The first screen will introduce you to the utility and a popup window will alert you that there are no ‘Update Lists’ found. Clicking on the OK button on the dialogue box will take you to the homepage where you need to download the update list file or UL file for the utility. This file is very small and contains the information file for all updates needed for the operating system. This utility can be used not only for the Windows 7 operating system, but also for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Exchange 2003. All you need to do is download the UL file for the updates of the operating system or software you need to update. Click on the required UL file, which is listed as x86 (32-bit) or X64 (64-bit), and a file will start downloading. A dialogue box will ask you what you want to do with it. You can either save the file or execute it using the WUD utility directly. Once done, WUD will open up another dialogue box stating that the compressed UL file is installed. Now a list of available updates will be shown and you will be asked to specify the download destination and select the updates in order to get them downloaded to the specified folder. Choose the destination and select the required updates or all of them (recommended) and hit the ‘Download’ button at the bottom right of the window. The utility will start downloading every update file you selected from the Internet to the download destination. The download will take a while depending on the operating system you choose and the speed of your Internet connection. For example, we downloaded all the updates for Windows 7 32-bit, which consisted of 108 files, in around half an hour on a 2Mb/s bandwidth.

Select and download the updates you require

Updates are being downloaded

Downloads are stored in your local folder

That’s it. After all the updates are downloaded and stored on your local hard drive, you can choose to copy the entire folder to an external hard drive/network location or simply burn it to a disc. Now every time you reinstall your operating system, you can simply update it completely by installing all the updates from this folder. The same can be done for all new computer installations in your office or home.