8 replies to this topic

[andyvin]

Hi folks,

I have XP Pro SP2 still running on my machine and a while back I managed to download Autopatcher 1.04 for XP SP2.
Now, I recently noticed that Autopatcher does not support SP2 anymore for XP, but what if I want to reinstall XP with SP2??

WIll my current Autopatcher will still RETAIN all the updates and patches for SP2 when I run Autopatcher again under XP SP2??

I have the whole Autopatcher folder on a CD as well.

I dont want to install SP3 as of yet....Because my company told me to hold-off on SP3.

Please help.

[James]

Hi andyvin

andyvin, on Jul 28 2008, 11:08 AM, said:

WIll my current Autopatcher will still RETAIN all the updates and patches for SP2 when I run Autopatcher again under XP SP2??

NO -- it won't. As currently written, the SP3 script clears out all old updates including all those for SP2.

andyvin, on Jul 28 2008, 11:08 AM, said:

I have the whole Autopatcher folder on a CD as well.

Wise decision!

andyvin, on Jul 28 2008, 11:08 AM, said:

I dont want to install SP3 as of yet....Because my company told me to hold-off on SP3.

I can understand your problem, but Erik took the decision a while back to support only SP3. I know many companies are still resisting SP3, but maintaining an SP2 list these days is hard work. There are only so many hours in a day...

--

[andyvin]

Ok, Now....Do Ihave to re-download this Autopatcher again for SP3, or, can I use my current Autopatcher thats on the CD?

In other words, when I run the APUP.exe file, it will only show the updates for SP3 now, so I do not have to re-download the Autopatcher again....
So will it just FETCH for SP3 updates only from my current Autopatcher thats on my CD?

Am I right?

Thx.

James, on Jul 28 2008, 01:36 PM, said:

Hi andyvin

NO -- it won't. As currently written, the SP3 script clears out all old updates including all those for SP2.

Wise decision!

I can understand your problem, but Erik took the decision a while back to support only SP3. I know many companies are still resisting SP3, but maintaining an SP2 list these days is hard work. There are only so many hours in a day...

--

Edited by andyvin, 28 July 2008 - 01:25 PM.

[James]

You're more-or-less right.

When you run APUP again it will try and bring everything up to date including both the updater (apup.exe) and the installer/engine (autopatcher.exe) -- unless you have UNselected these from the list.

Not a wise choice (in my opinion) to Unselect these -- and the download saving is very small. If these components are unchanged from your last download they won't be downloaded again.

You can only run autopatcher from a CD, not APUP -- APUP needs to write to its own folder as well as all the folders underneath.

You won't fetch SP3 itself. AP neither downloads nor installs the Service Pack itself - just everything else.

--

[andyvin]

Yes I know very well that it will not download SP3 and I also have that on CD as well.

I had noticed that when I clicked on my current APUP.exe file, the only things that were checked were the updated engines and the selection to download all the updates for SP3....

I will have to look at this again as well to double check....If not, then I will just re-download the Autopatcher again from this site just to be on the safe side and run APUP again...

Ok, the way I run APUP, is that first I copy and paste it off from the CD onto my Desktop. Or...I should say, the whole entire Autopatcher folder with the APUP inside of it...Them when its on my desktop, then I run it....

James, on Jul 28 2008, 02:39 PM, said:

You're more-or-less right.

When you run APUP again it will try and bring everything up to date including both the updater (apup.exe) and the installer/engine (autopatcher.exe) -- unless you have UNselected these from the list.

Not a wise choice (in my opinion) to Unselect these -- and the download saving is very small. If these components are unchanged from your last download they won't be downloaded again.

You can only run autopatcher from a CD, not APUP -- APUP needs to write to its own folder as well as all the folders underneath.

You won't fetch SP3 itself. AP neither downloads nor installs the Service Pack itself - just everything else.

--

Edited by andyvin, 28 July 2008 - 02:08 PM.

[James]

OK, with a bit more info, I see what you're doing.

If you copy to the Desktop, I can see a problem because the Desktop folder's full path expands to something like:
C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Desktop
in which case APUP and its helper will have a problem with the spaces in the "Documents and Settings" part. Usual advice is to run from another folder with NO spaces in the path.

If you already have SP3 that's fine, but I have to spell out the obvious from time to time because you wouln't believe how other people misunderstand what's happening.

--

[offtrack]

same here, we have cad , cam systems. and sp3 is a no go for them, unless we want to spend another $10 on updates .

so i am not asking for RT support , just a frozen autoupdate prog. FROZEN at the last SP2 patch . no support ,just the file.

then we can find out later what part of sp3 is killing us.
one chunk at a time. (on weekends) fun......

or is this impossible?

I , now have a zip file filled with all the SP2 updates, all the ms exe's. but you have to click over and over 100 times to get them. (collected since 2001 before sp1)
some ask for reboot others dont so would need convoluted script to batch it.

looks like i must.


2nd Idea.
you post it and when I down load it ,i pay again.

thanks for looking. and helping.

good day to all.

Edited by offtrack, 08 September 2008 - 08:06 PM.

[stomptheyard]

offtrack, on Sep 9 2008, 04:04 AM, said:

same here, we have cad , cam systems. and sp3 is a no go for them, unless we want to spend another $10 on updates .

so i am not asking for RT support , just a frozen autoupdate prog. FROZEN at the last SP2 patch . no support ,just the file.

then we can find out later what part of sp3 is killing us.
one chunk at a time. (on weekends) fun......

or is this impossible?

I , now have a zip file filled with all the SP2 updates, all the ms exe's. but you have to click over and over 100 times to get them. (collected since 2001 before sp1)
some ask for reboot others dont so would need convoluted script to batch it.

looks like i must.


2nd Idea.
you post it and when I down load it ,i pay again.

thanks for looking. and helping.

good day to all.

ok here's what i did to a pc of a friend who still insists on using XPSP2. a possible workaround.

assuming you already have all the XPSP2 updates from AP, at least a day before they started supporting XPSP3, into one folder, download the latest APUP and place it in a folder (sub-folder perhaps), other than the AP parent folder.

run APUP from that folder to fetch all your necessary SP3 updates and other add-ons you need.
after that, you will notice the "modules" folder automatically created from the APUP folder. once the fetching process is completed, copy, NOT move, the "modules" folder onto the AP parent folder, overwriting (appending, in this case) the original "modules" folder.

doing so obviously will make your AP run at unsupported mode, but nevertheless the SP3 updates and other add-ons somehow still can be installed into your XPSP2 machine perfectly well.

now, can't say for sure if i share the same sentiments with the majority here who may have found a solution to this type of problem nor does the AP team can vouch my idea, but i can attest that so far there have been no conflicts or errors generated whatsoever from the seam.

and one more thing, the reason for the "copy folder, instead of a move" thingy from the procedure i just gave, is that if the "modules" folder found in the APUP folder remains intact, APUP would no longer re-download anything that is already stored in there.

hope this will work out for you.
but then again, if others could find a more effective workaround, i'm open to it.

[_def_x_]

Hi offtrack...

It sounds like you are doing with XP what I was doing with Windows 98. I collected
40 or more EXEs from Microsoft's corporate links. I clicked one after another until
they were all installed and 98 was once again up to date - this was a pain.

Then I found QChain - not great but it worked for the most part.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/296861

I also kept track of the updates that would install without a reboot and those that
needed to reboot the system and created batch files for both sets of updates.

I dont think you have the folder structure setup for APUP to recognize the EXEs
anyway, nor the associated apm files, but if you did, AutoPatcher works better
than QChain ever did.


Good Luck!

Mike