22 replies to this topic

[gwmbox]

Noting that the front page no longer exists and I have taken a quick look at the FAQ but can I ask what AutoPatcher really does and how it works please. A manual and/or a guide to set-up would be handy for us noobs

We have 5 PC's, 1 NAS (FreeNAS) and 2 laptops. The problem we have is a limited monthly download quota and as such we would prefer to only download windows updates once and then have all the other PC's access the updates from that PC. Is this what Autopatcher does?

Does Autopatcher do updates of other software as well, i.e. Java, MS Office, Virus and Malware definition updates and so on?

Cheers

[ViroMan]

We have been um... pestering our admin, to get a wiki installed... so we can write up a proper introduction to the application and how to use it.
To answer your questions in one word... Yes. except the NAS.

Autopatcher will download the updates DIRECTLY from windows update servers. We provide the program that fetches the updates(APUP), the scripts that APUP uses, and the program that allows you you choose and install the updates AutoPatcher.

APUP:
Program will first come to this site and download a manifest list of available scripts. Each script is a targeted OS that we support or other software... JAVA, MS office, Adobe, and so on. Then once you make your selections it will download each script and then parse them for the downloads to retrieve. Once done you may then run AutoPatcher.

AutoPatcher:
This program will make sure the downloads are official according to our script and allow you to install them. Any changes in the MD5 of a file will be flagged unofficial(this can happen if MS changes a file without warning/reason. It happens alot actually). Once the check is done you are presented with all available installs for your current OS. Select what you want and Install them. You of coarse will want to check with Windows Update afterwards due to are inability to include updates for hardware related updates and we only update on patch Tuesdays so something might come out in between our last update and when you check.

IF you want to use this for multiple Computers I highly recommend a USB stick that is USB 2.0 able and I hope your computers are new enough to have USB 2.0 ports. Using the current AP over Network is very slow due to the MD5 checking. You can disable that though, I forget the command at the moment. Make sure to mount the network path to a drive first... or else AP will throw errors. The current version of AP is not network aware. I am working on a new version though.

Autopatcher really shines in the situation you are in. Limited download capacity or unwillingness to download the same damn thing multiple times to different computers and then the 5-6 reboots per computer, wasting several hours if your doing it one at a time. Doing it this way, you only need about 10-30 mins and your done per computer. There is the necessity to have them updated to most recent Service Pack though. It keeps the downloaded amount ALOT lower.

Quick Start Guide.

Download the program to any directory you want. APUP will run from any local directory(or NAS if mapped to a drive(not recommended due to massive HD usage during MD5 check)) no need to install. It will create the sub-directories it needs(IF it has the proper permissions).
MAKE A NEW DIR and put APUP in it for EACH different OS your updating to help you keep track... otherwise your going to end up with a HUGE folder and no way to pull out a set of updates to burn to CD or anything.
example AutoPatcher_XP_x86 or AutoPatcher_Vista_x86

Run APUP. It will contact this server and get a manifest list. The list will show options to download. (the date shown is the last time the script was updated. That doesn't mean it is not current though.)
Select the following:
AutoPatcher Engine <-- this is the program you will use to install the updates
AutoPatcher for <INSERT OS> <-- select the OS install you want to download for.
Microsoft Security ENU <-- (MS)Malicious software Removal Tool update
You can select anything else you may want/need.

After the downloads are done. You run AutoPatcher and select what downloads to install. Anything in BLUE, it has detected that it is already installed, so you don't need to select that. Things that Microsoft has deemed 'critical', are auto selected for you, provided they aren't already installed.


ohh one more thing... both applications have command line arguments. The one recommended one is /log. Make a batch file for AutoPatcher and have it run autopatcher with the /log command so it will generate log files. APUP already has a batch file called "hit_this_to_generate_a_log_file_for_apup.cmd". Nice for us to see log files if something goes wrong you can post it here and we will help you fix an issue.(if we can)


AND another thing: AutoPatcher will need admin rights of course so it can install updates... We recommend disabling the annoying windows vista/win7 rights management crap while the installs are going otherwise your going to be doing alot of clicking.

Edited by ViroMan, 20 March 2012 - 07:14 AM.

[gwmbox]

Excellent, thanks for the info. USB seems to be the way. Can I ask how it processes each PC though. We have all PC's/Laptops running Windows 7, most on 64-bit and a couple on-32 bit. Lets say I have my PC as the master, so I run and get the updates using AutoPatcher, Does that save the files onto the USB? So that when I go to the next PC and run AutoPatcher from the same USB drive it sees the files already downloaded on the USB and uses them directly without another download Is that correct?

Will an 8GB USB stick be enough or should I be looking at something bigger?

Cheers

[ViroMan]

8GB should be plenty. If you have more then one stick all the faster. During the downloading, the files will be saved where ever you ran APUP from. If you ran it from the USB it will save to the USB. If you ran it from your desktop(DON'T DO THAT) it will save to the desktop. The best way is to just make a folder somewhere on your HD then let it do the all the downloading. Then copy the folder to the USB. Then you only have to go to each computer and run the AutoPatcher program not the APUP. The updates are installed in proper KB release date order. You may need 2 reboot though. sometimes updates don't want to install. Better then 4-6 though, yes?

Remember I recommend you name your folders according to which updates you downloaded for... example AutoPatcher_Vista_x64 or AutoPatcher_Vista_x86

So for you... make a folder called AutoPatcher_Vista_x64 put a copy of APUP in it and download Vista_x64 script downloads.
then for your x86 computers make another folder called AutoPatcher_Vista_x86 and put a copy of APUP in it and download Vista_x86 script downloads.

Edited by ViroMan, 20 March 2012 - 04:06 PM.

[gwmbox]

Excellent, thank you very much once again for your help and guides, it is greatly appreciated

[gwmbox]

When I start apup and get the list of programs how do I know what t select?

The top three are already selected and then I assume I select the relevant Windows item for that system, in this case Windows 7 SP1 x64 as I assume that means for all 64bit systems? Or does it?

My desktop is an intel i7 930 cpu, 8GB DDR3 ram and so on.... We have also got other intel and AMD systems.

Thanks

[Whatacrock]

Hey there, just select the releases that you need to download, for example you need Vista x86 then you click the checkbox Autopatcher for Vista x86 SP2.
If you update multiple OS's then you want to have all the releases in one folder which is what I have done but makes it a larger download when updates become available or as ViroMan suggested was to individual folders for each release
Hope that helps

[ViroMan]

problem is... if you have multiple OS's you will spend ALOT of time in MD5 checking ALL of the downloads. If you separate them into folders you won't have that long wait.

Seriously I know there is a command to disable MD5 checking in AutoPatcher but, for the life of me I can't find it.

edit:
Well.. if you delete all the .RTI files AutoPatcher won't run an MD5 check but, it will show as unofficial, not a big issue really.

Edited by ViroMan, 22 March 2012 - 06:48 AM.

[kokkykrao]

Hi guys!
First and foremost, I would like to thank you very much for doing what you've done so far, incredible work!

I'm pretty new to autopatcher, and i have a slight problem with scripting this to a batch file. Working in a enterprise environment, and a smooth script on a network share would really make everyday a cakewalk.
When i run autoupdater.exe /unattend /recommended, it still doesnt install all updates that the machine needs. Several of the security updates are still in the windows update recommendation when i go there to check against the updates autoupdater has installed.

Im also wondering about the /answerfile:"path". I have spaces in the network share where I want to put the apup folder. I've tried with several different strings, and i figure it should look something like this:
/answerfile:"\\servername\software\microsoft windows 7\windows 7 upgrades\apup\answerfile.aaf".
/answerfile:\\servername\software\microsoft windows 7\windows 7 upgrades\apup\answerfile.aaf

Doesn't seem to affect the results, as it doesn't seem to be able to detect the answerfile.
I've also tried with just linking it to the main "apup" folder, without the /answerfile.aaf ending.

Is it even possible doing this through a share? Speed is not a problem, but i recon the UNC path may not be supported..?

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Edited by kokkykrao, 17 April 2012 - 01:53 PM.

[ViroMan]

autoupdater.exe?? Do you have such a thing? if so... get rid of it. Its not from us. We have two programs. APUP.exe and AutoPatcher.exe. Well three programs if you include the beta apup2.exe.

AutoPatcher does NOT like network directories. You have to fool it by mounting the directory to a drive. Then it should work fine. Try that and then report back.

[kokkykrao]

I'm embarassed. I'm talking about autopatcher.exe, not autoupdater! It was at the end of my day so I guess i have to blame that!
I figured i had to mount it, but I still am curious about the answerfile! I'll do some tests today and give you an update before I leave work. Thanks for the fast reply!

[kokkykrao]

Ok. Ive modified the script to look like this:


net use R: "\\servername\Archive\Software\Operating Systems\Microsoft Windows 7\Microsoft Windows 7 Updates\apup"
R:
autopatcher.exe /nolicense /answerfile:answerfile.aaf /noreboot /log:\logs

I've added the noreboot switch because I intend to migrate this with my WDS script. - Haven't tested it yet though.
I'm not really sure about the /log, it seems AP won't create new logfiles after the first is created, and upon deletion, the log still will not be created. The goal here for me is to place the logfile(s) in a folder I created in the apup folder, called logs.
The answerfile worked as intended, which is great!

Edited by kokkykrao, 18 April 2012 - 08:33 AM.

[kokkykrao]

So i ran the script (with /unattend as well)from the mounted drive on a newly formatted machine. The result is good, but the speed is not. It takes 1hour and 30 min to install all updates. (machine was installed with SP1, so the updates do not include pre-SP1). Which is pretty much the same as downloading all from windows update on the same machine. Am I doing something wrong?

This leaves me with 2 problems:
1. Speed.
2. Logfiles. - How to save in given location - and is it even possible to create more than 1?

[ViroMan]

When you say speed... do you mean download speed or install speed?
if its install speed you can speed that up alot over the network by removing all the RTI files. That will stop autopatcher from checking the MD5 of each and every file over the network which takes alot of time.

APUP generates your log files in the same folder. AP generates log files in the windows directory. "autopatcher.log" There is no command to change this behavior as far as i am aware.

[ViroMan]

here have this...

AutoPatcher 5.6 Release Notes

By Antonis Kaladis, Version 2.1.0, Updated 20th August 2007

1 - Preface

This document is based on AutoPatcher.exe build 5.6.0.81.

2 - Treeview Shortcuts

Shortcuts available from the selection window.
Ctrl + A Select all
Ctrl + D Deselect all
Ctrl + N Select none (same as above)
Ctrl + I Select all except installed
Ctrl + L Load selection from answer file
Ctrl + S Save selection to answer file
Ctrl + R Restore defaults

3 - Exit Codes

Code returned when AutoPatcher closes to inform other programs that may have called it whether it was successful of not.
-1 Crashed (!)
1 User exit
2 User exit, avoiding reboot
5 Installation finished, reboot not required
10 Installation finished, reboot required, but supressed via commandline


4 - Commandline Arguments

Commands you can pass to AutoPatcher.exe via the command line to alter default behaviour.
?			  Shows a message about the available switches
help			  Shows a message about the available switches
nolicense		  Skips both the AutoPatcher and Microsoft licenses
nocrashhandler		  Disables the crash handler
log			  Enables active file logging (to <windows>\autopatcher.log)
report			  Used along with /log, adds an installation report to the log file
verbose			  Enables additional output that /log would not normally write
devmode			  Allows you to ignore errors (in crash handler)
noreboot		  Skips the reboot sequence (Not implemented yet fully)
nodetection		  Skip file and registry detection on modules. Everything will be as if it's not installed, even if it is!
english			  Overrides the user interface language (normally adapts to regional settings) and switches it to default, english.
answerfile:<filepath>	  Specifies an answer file to load. This overrides the Answer File screen (where AutoPatcher would normally detect answer files in its folder and ask you whether it should load any of them)
unattend		  Activates unattended installation (implies nolicense). This also skip the answer-file screen, so the only way of specifying an answer file is through the answerfile switch.
minimal			  Only used along with unattend. This will run AutoPatcher with a minimal UI.
recommended		  Normally only modules marked as critical will be checked by default in the selection window. This switch allows modules marked as recommended to be checked by default too.
neverselectinstalled	  Installed child items of a parent will not be selected when the parent is marked for installation (normally selecting a parent will also select ALL children, even if installed/blue).
slipstream:<share>	  Allows you to integrate patches into installation media, where [i]<share>[/i] is the drive and path to the share. This disables detection (no point detecting what is installed on the running system since the patches will be applied to a share), removal (can't remove an integrated patch from a share, can you?) and environment checks (e.g. windows version, language, ie, wmp -- for the same reason that detection is ignored).

Edited by ViroMan, 18 April 2012 - 05:52 PM.

[kokkykrao]

Thanks, I will. I actually been going over that again and again to see if I was missing something
I was referring to the install speed, I will delete the RTI files and check again, thanks for the tip!

ViroMan, on 18 April 2012 - 05:14 PM, said:

APUP generates your log files in the same folder. AP generates log files in the windows directory. "autopatcher.log" There is no command to change this behavior as far as i am aware.

This is what I'm talking about. AP fails to generate the logs after the first log has been created.

[ViroMan]

ohh really? That is strange. I have never heard of anyone having that issue. Does the log not get modified or you can delete it and it still never makes a new one? I should have remembered what you said before. You are running AP with admin access correct?

I might have a few ideas as to why your having problems but, I need to do some testing.

Edited by ViroMan, 19 April 2012 - 09:38 AM.

[ViroMan]

its soo hard to do tests when the original ap code doesn't put out much in the way of diagnostic error codes.

[kokkykrao]

Deleting the RTI files didn't help the speed, unfortunately.
Im running it with admin rights.

And another thing: For some reason the 2005 C++ distributional packages fails on installation, (didnt get what the error message said, but I will do another test today and see if they reappear).
This stops the entire installation even though its run with /unattend. Is there a workaround for this?

[ViroMan]

huh... deleting the RTI files should significantly increase install speed by at 40-60 seconds for it being on the same HD and even more over network.
You can try running the exe with the install commands we give it and see if it gives an error. Assuming its the x64 os you have:
vcredist_2005_SP1_SU_x64.exe" /q /r:n

As for solving the log problem I came up with nothing.

Have you tried running the AP on local HD and linking the modules directory to the netfolder