Reinstall Updates and No Redownload on Factory Install

[scrtmtl]

Hi,

Enviroment: HP Vista 32 bit Home Premium

Just did factory reinstall on vista. Then vista updates on a dialup, install and configure.

1) Now, if I have to do the factory reinstall again and now. Can I avoid redownloading those updates? Guess it must be save somewhere. Googling, saw it is in C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download. Guess, I will save that folder C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download to my backup hard drive. Now, I factory reinstall vista. Now, what do I do with the folder in my backup hard drive or where do I place it to be executed for visat update installation?

2) Hp sends ton of crap (trial software, etc) with there installation. Is there a way to do a install without installing that crap like pressing a function key (f8 or f10) while booting up to do a selective install? Just to let you know, it takes forever for hp to install that crap. Then forever to manually uninstall. Then I use Glary Utility to discover about 531 registry need to be clean. Wish if HP provieded a selective menu of what the user want to install.

3)Vista Home Premium does not have that backup feature like the higher version in business, pro, ultimate. LOL, I thought premium meant the works when it just became available. Would like to save my restore check point to an external hard drive for restore check points do get overwritten in home edition and to save disk space. Any ideas without buying the upgrade or pirating microsoft? Saw someone mention that Vista Home version has the feature of the upgrade cousins. Also, shadow explorer does the trick. When trying to export the program folder, etc to my backup hd, think I saw some messages to have some concern. Any ideas on how to save my restore check point. Or what program vista business uses for that feature?

4) Ended up using acronis. Which is better, Norton 360 or acronis? A while back, one trusted site put down Norton and my geek computer friend praise Norton over acronis. Please note, I am sure other users would like a solution to 3) rather than using 4).

Thank for your suggestion in advance.

 

[richc46]

Hi,

Enviroment: HP Vista 32 bit Home Premium

Just did factory reinstall on vista. Then vista updates on a dialup, install and configure.

1) Now, if I have to do the factory reinstall again and now. Can I avoid redownloading those updates? Guess it must be save somewhere. Googling, saw it is in C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download. Guess, I will save that folder C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download to my backup hard drive. Now, I factory reinstall vista. Now, what do I do with the folder in my backup hard drive or where do I place it to be executed for visat update installation?

2) Hp sends ton of crap (trial software, etc) with there installation. Is there a way to do a install without installing that crap like pressing a function key (f8 or f10) while booting up to do a selective install? Just to let you know, it takes forever for hp to install that crap. Then forever to manually uninstall. Then I use Glary Utility to discover about 531 registry need to be clean. Wish if HP provieded a selective menu of what the user want to install.

3)Vista Home Premium does not have that backup feature like the higher version in business, pro, ultimate. LOL, I thought premium meant the works when it just became available. Would like to save my restore check point to an external hard drive for restore check points do get overwritten in home edition and to save disk space. Any ideas without buying the upgrade or pirating microsoft? Saw someone mention that Vista Home version has the feature of the upgrade cousins. Also, shadow explorer does the trick. When trying to export the program folder, etc to my backup hd, think I saw some messages to have some concern. Any ideas on how to save my restore check point. Or what program vista business uses for that feature?

4) Ended up using acronis. Which is better, Norton 360 or acronis? A while back, one trusted site put down Norton and my geek computer friend praise Norton over acronis. Please note, I am sure other users would like a solution to 3) rather than using 4).

Thank for your suggestion in advance.

Thanks Given to Kari of Seven Forum for this recent post:
Found this yesterday, been testing today and this is simply the best freeware /donationware application I have ever seen, a great help for those reinstalling often and / or maintaining several rigs with different versions of Windows.

WSUS Offline Update allows you to download all available updates to any edition of Windows XP, Windows Server 200X, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Ms Office XP, Ms Office 2003, Ms Office 2007 and MS Office 2010. It creates one or several ISO images of your updates, which in its turn allows you to update the Windows or Office simple by mounting the ISO. You can of course burn the ISO to disk, which allows you to update other computers even when they are offline.

User interface is simple:



Choose to which versions of Windows you want WSUS to download updates. Choose if you want to create one ISO which contains all updates to several versions of Windows (x86 only), or if you want to create ISO's per selected Windows version and language.

You can also choose if you want to include service packs, NET Framework updates, MSE and 7 or Windows Defender definitions.

Click start, WSUS starts now downloading updates, creating ISO:



Done:



My test: I created an Universal Update ISO earlier today, containing all updates to XP, Vista and Seven, including service packs and NET Framework updates. I had one fresh Seven installation on an old desktop where I had still not done any updates, an XP SP2 laptop and an old Vista SP1 desktop.

Downloading all updates took some time, the ISO created was about 3 GB. I then burned the ISO to a DVD, disconnected all three test rigs from Internet and loaded the disk, updating all three rigs. Screenshot from Windows 7:



Everything went smoothly. My former XP SP2 is now SP3, Vista SP1 is SP2, and Seven is up to date. Judging from that WSUS created subfolders for each version of Windows which seemed to contain all updates (kbXXXXXX files), I would guess that it's easy to update the ISO, meaning if I run the UpdateCreator.exe in let's say a few weeks time it only downloads the new updates and updates the ISO. For instance, I now have all Seven updates in folder \wsusoffline\client\w61\glb.

Going to test the Office update tomorrow, I have Office XP, 2003 and 2010 in different rigs so I can test the global update ISO.

Notice that WSUS does not include optional updates in ISO. WSUS works in both x86 and x64 versions of Windows XP, Vista, Server 200X and Seven.

Kari
End Quote
Many share your concern about the bloatware. The computer manufacturers makea lot of money by including that promotional stuff that no one really wants. They make it very difficult to remove. There are some that buy an upgrade of the OS, just to rid themselves of the bloatware.

As far as I know the restore points are written to the drive that will be restored.
That being said give this a try

Attach external hard drive
Run Dos prompt as administrator (with right click)
(type wbadmin start backup -backuptarget:z: -include:c: (enter)
In this example Z is the backup.