[geeks] Windows XP, and activation

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 @ 08:44 -0600, Lionel Peterson said:

> >From: Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com>
> >Date: 2006/11/06 Mon AM 12:25:52 CST
> >To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
> >Subject: Re: [geeks] Windows XP, and activation
> 
> <snip>
> 
> >There is *zero* reason Microsoft could not give you a list of what you
> >need to download and let you schedule it later.
> 
> Well, let's be fair - if you play their game, they have options to
> alert you when updates are needed, download alerts as needed and let
> you schedule installation, and a final option to let MS download and
> install updates as they are released (and possibly reboot) your
> computer. What you ask for is something between the first two choices,
> but it is automated.

Yes, but that requires the machine that needs the updates to run the
updater.

What if I want the same options, but to a different machine, maybe a
different OS?

99.9 percent of the time, all I need is a list of patches released after
a given date.  If they would just do that, I'd be pretty happy.

Instead, I have to manually search for all that, often on non-Microsoft
websites since theirs can be hard to navigate.

Half the time, I can't even get the release date for a patch, the naming
convention sucks, and they never come with documentation on what they
do.

What I want:

	- all patches released in an archive with a README so I don't have
	  to refer to a website to see what it fixed
	- all patches with a specific date
	- a better naming convention, though I could do without it if I had
	  to
	- the ability to list patches by release date and product

The last one... that's a beef I have with most other update systems too.
At times it can be very important to know that.

> Microsoft also has tools to allow an organization to bypass MS update
> servers and have desktops/servers update from a privately maintained
> repository which can, as I understand it, download updates as they are
> released and only with operator intervention will those updates be
> pushed out to the desktops/servers...

Does it work on non-Windows machines?


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["The object of war is not to die for your
country but to make the other bastard die for his." -- General George S.
Patton]