Difference between revisions of "Automatic Updates"

Revision as of 14:15, 5 March 2008

If you deployed Windows workstations using Unattended, you had the opportunity to configure Automatic Updates.

If you didn't do it, or want to change it for some reason (i.e., Microsoft introduced a "patchday", and it makes too great impact on your network and/or workstations), you can use WPKG.

The below setting (auconfig.pl 3) will download updates automatically and notify the user before install. Other choices are possible:

1 | off         Disable automatic updates
2 | notify      Notify user before download
3 | download    Download automatically; notify user before install
4 | install     Download and install automatically

For more options, see auconfig.pl help.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<packages>
 <package
   id="windowsupdates"
   name="Windows Updates"
   revision="1"
   reboot="false"
   priority="10"
   execute="once">

   <install cmd='C:\Perl\bin\perl %SERVER%\unattended\bin\auconfig.pl 3' />
 
   <upgrade cmd='C:\Perl\bin\perl %SERVER%\unattended\bin\auconfig.pl 3' />

 </package>
</packages>

Note that you will need Unattended on your server, and Perl on your workstations (it comes by default if you deploy Windows with Unattended).

Automatic updates using registry

Read this before apply http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328010

<package
 id="winupdates"
 name="Automatic updates"
 revision="8"
 reboot="false"
 notify="false"
 priority="100">

  
 <check type="logical" condition="or">
   <check type="registry" condition="equals" path="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProductName" value="Microsoft Windows 2000" />
   <check type="registry" condition="equals" path="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProductName" value="Microsoft Windows XP" />
 </check>
		
 <check type="logical" condition="and">
   <check type="registry" condition="equals" path="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU\AUOptions" value="4" />
   <check type="registry" condition="equals" path="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU\ScheduledInstallDay" value="0" />
   <check type="registry" condition="equals" path="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU\ScheduledInstallTime" value="8" />
 </check>
	
 <install cmd='reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU"' />
 <install cmd='reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v AUOptions /t REG_DWORD /d 4 /f' />
 <install cmd='reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v ScheduledInstallDay /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f' />
 <install cmd='reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v ScheduledInstallTime /t REG_DWORD /d 8 /f' />

 <upgrade cmd='reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU"' />
 <upgrade cmd='reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v AUOptions /t REG_DWORD /d 4 /f' />
 <upgrade cmd='reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v ScheduledInstallDay /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f' />
 <upgrade cmd='reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" /v ScheduledInstallTime /t REG_DWORD /d 8 /f' />
	
 <remove cmd='reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /f' />
 
</package>