AutoPatcher Forum

Hi to all, I updated the Autopatcher yesterday morning into my external hard drive and loaded these updates into all three XP computers. Then I noticed Microsoft is alerting me for three more updates, so I updated the Autopatcher the second time yesterday, and here is what happened. It said there are 59 MB of files to download, but when the downloading was complete I opened the other Autopatcher window to install all these updates and it turned out there was nothing new to install. This morning I tried this apup downloading the third time, and this time it says there are 116 MB of files to download, so this time I decided to stop and exit because it is too much data usage and I know it will have nothing new to install after. So, I tried this on another computer and this time apup is showing 95 MB of files to update, so now for sure I know there is something really wrong with this software or the way I am doing this. I never had any problems before this month, so can anyone tell me why this apup is downloading unnecessary files into my external hard drive and then there is nothing new to install after, and at the same time Microsoft is still alerting me for 3 more updates?

Hi Tim

This is strange to say the least. Start running APUP with logging enabled, the log file lists all scripts and files downloading. One option - dbl-click the 'hit_this...cmd' file in the root folder, this will start APUP with logging - the file (apup.log) will be in the root folder as well. Read Here! for more info. Use spoiler code - see This Post!, the bit at the bottom about Spoiler.

Btw, my opinion always update the release (APUP) and the system (AutoPatcher) locally - don't run 'apup.exe' or 'autopatcher.exe' from a remote location, including external drives.

A few reasonable possibilities - if by chance the machine you downloaded with had another OS (not XP) installed, this OS will be selected, you may have downloaded a Vista or 7 package. Did you select an additional release by accident? During the 'move' or 'copy' process files were corrupted and needed redownloading (I know, sounds far-fetched). I'm only speculating There were 2 additional updates added since Dec. 14th - about 1MB in total. If we had your log file we would know for sure what is downloading.

Look in the root folder - C:\apup - for any .rti files, if you have more than 'xp_sp3_enu.rti' and 'apengine.rti' you downloaded additional releases. Is the release Official, start AutoPatcher, load the releases, while AutoPatcher is open, click About // Release Info, what's listed under Title?

Btw, not all updates will apply to your particular system, there are updates for IE 6, 7, and 8 - as an example. Point being - you may download to your AutoPatcher package files MU/WU wont offer.

Thanks Guitar Mike, I think you found the answer to my problem when you said don't run apup.exe in a remote drive. I checked the log and found nothing unusual and no errors, but I found that if I run apup.exe inside the computer the way I used to do it before last month it will not download unnecessary or needless files, so it seems to work better this way. Do you or anyone else know why it won't work in a remote drive? I started using an external hard drive last month because I don't like burning large files on a CD every month and that caused my CD burner to quit on me, so I can only think of using an external hard drive or start using one of those flash drives. Now I know I will have to do it inside one of my computers and just erase the external HD files and replace it with the updated files in my computer, and then load them into all my other computers every month. So far I found the Autopatcher window that installs all the updates seem to work okay for me in an external drive, I never had problems using this externally before, so how can this be a problem in an external hard drive or a flash drive?

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The short answer is - the AutoPatcher FAQ states AutoPatcher (not APUP) will run from these locations, and it does 99% of the time. I have always fixed those very unusual situations with AutoPatcher and strange behavior by moving the release to the local system drive and then updating - so this is what I do as habit.

Btw, thumb drives (or flash) are great and very convenient. I just finished an A+ class, we had to use numerous (portable) utilities, anything you installed or located on the school computers were gone next class, the fix - store em' and run em' from a thumb drive, even OpenOffice worked great.

Now, why APUP has problems with remote locations I honestly don't know, I do think some effort has been made to address this but the programming hasn't happened yet. The good news is proxy support and the ability to remember selections has been added to APUP. AutoPatcher has been updated a bit as well to support Windows 7 and a few other things - with an all voluntary project it's baby steps, you take what you can get and for us long-time users these changes no matter how small or large are very much appreciated.

Anyway, this is why I repeatedly recommend always locate and run both AutoPatcher and APUP from C:\apup - this solves a great number of problems.

Interesting, and I just ordered a flash drive at ebay for the first time to see how it works. I'm always kind of late when there are new gadgets on the market no matter how popular they are. I think you're right that this is the best solution instead of external HD or over-using a CD burner every month, the convenience is in its thumb size.

Thanks Guitar Mike and have a great Holiday!