Office Updates Downloader

[TwoJ]

Recently I've been using a program called Ketarin;
http://ketarin.canneverbe.com/
This software is used for downloading and updating files from the internet.

I've put together a small package, which contains the English updates for most of the Office update packages i put out. Since this program works by database it might be easier to release this instead of uploading/downloading packages, since only a few are needed per month that can be downloaded from Microsoft.
I looked at jcarle's 'Windows Update Downloader' which has some nice features, however at present its main drawback for me is that it always downloads the update, regardless of whether the updates is already downloaded. Ketarin on the other hand will check and only download if the update is absent or an older version.

I've setup the database with a tree structure to work with the office integrator, its not perfect, and i will modify it in the future, once the OI can handle multiple hotpacks.

Once you download the file, i suggest you create a folder such as 'Updates' on your hard drive, extract the file to this and you should get 3 files, run the ketarin.exe and it should display a window with the updates that I've created at this time. You can go into View->Show Groups to get a better view of the packages, also by clicking on the target bar will hopefully make it clear which updates there are. You can now select the updates for a particular group that you don't want to download and delete them, ie if you don't want the Office Viewers, then select all the updates that have a target path including 'Office_Viewers' and delete them.

The program will also download service packs, so be careful that you risk downloading a considerable amount if you have everything selected.

For the moment I've tried to group things into the same folders, even though in some GLB (Global) folders you will find language specific updates (ie en-us for US English), I've done this so that from OI you can select all the updates from one folder.

This is a very early work-in-progress, that may have some interesting potential.
I'd appreciate any comments and feedback

[2013-03-19]

- I have included the Office 2013 updates as well, there are already too many hotfixes to even consider a hotpack. Beware these are big!

- I've notice that the Office Integrator v1.1 is not capable of making a good hotpack with the updates for Office 2010, at this point I suggest you extract the msp files and place them in the updates folder of your office 2010 source.


Download the Office Updates Downloader (updated 2013-04-15)
Ketarin_OfficeUpdatesDownloader_en-us_20130415.7z

[benners]

Thanks TwoJ, I would like to add some sort of d/l facility into the OI but don't have the know how or the time. I found something similar a while back here which does it for office.

From my quick test it d/ls the updates and adds them to the Office setup files instead of slipstreaming them.

[ChiefZeke]

TwoJ - looks like a very useful program.

Is it safe to assume that the downloads using the Office Updates Downloader (OUD) are more accurate and up-to-date than the updates listed in the Office Integrator .CHM file?

I did use the OUD and then matched what it downloaded with what I had downloaded and which I thought were the latest updates for Office 2003 and the Viewers - there were a couple of mis-matches and before I make a list of these differences I figured I'd ask here as to the accuracy of the OUD downloads.

[TwoJ]

TwoJ - looks like a very useful program.

Is it safe to assume that the downloads using the Office Updates Downloader (OUD) are more accurate and up-to-date than the updates listed in the Office Integrator .CHM file?

I did use the OUD and then matched what it downloaded with what I had downloaded and which I thought were the latest updates for Office 2003 and the Viewers - there were a couple of mis-matches and before I make a list of these differences I figured I'd ask here as to the accuracy of the OUD downloads.

Hi chief

The updates are based on the updates that i use for my update hotpacks, i don't have any control over the updates that are published in the help file so i can't give any help about which one is more accurate. In an ideal world it would be great if someone could always keep an up-to-date list but since MS is not paying me to or anyone here, we'll have to make do with what we can do.
As you may have seen awhile ago i posted about having an online datebase which people could just auto-update the updates for their office installations. well this is a step in that direction, its not as practical nor as clean as i would like it but it does allow people not to need to download a 160MB package when all they need is a 3mb update.

This is really a work in progress since it means that this has to be redownloaded every month with the new updates, then the user has to reconfigure the database with the updates they want, so as it is right now it is more for the advanced user than just someone who wants to download the full pack and replace the existing one.

As i mentioned i tried the WUD 'Windows Update Downloader' but if i include the SPs they are always re-downloaded so that was really unacceptable i considered. In this case people can download the database, replace the older with the newer, reconfigure the database, update only the necessary files (provided they don't change the folder structure), then run the OI with the updates, the OI will then (ideally) put all the old and unnecessary hotfixes into a 'obsolete' folder, which can then be deleted.

The problems that this program has at the moment is that;
1) there is no easy way to select/deselect stuff, nor remember the settings - ie no office XP updates, or no optional updates
2) there is no control to delete older updates, at the moment it is up to the end user to clean-up the folders
3) the folder structure allows for duplicates, i would like a structure that avoids that but that would involve the end user to need to move updates around manually, which was one of the things i was trying to avoid.

This is really an attempt to see how an online datebase might work in order to have a local cache of updates that can be managed by either a seperate program, or by the OI itself. In reality this project needs someone will a lot of spare time and interest (more than benners and myself) to pull together a much more refined OI.

thanks for your input

[TwoJ]

Updated to 2010-08-21

[TwoJ]

Updated to 2010-10-16

[GollyJer]

I'd love to give this a try but am unable to download from RapidShare.
Can you add another download location? Or maybe PM it to me? Thanks!

[TwoJ]

Hi GollyJer
Sorry to hear you are having issues, but as i've mentioned i really don't want to start uploading to more file hosting sites.
In your case can you try using a program called jdownloader and see if it helps with the download - let me know what happens

[TwoJ]

Updated to 2011-01-22

[TwoJ]

Updated to 2011-02-13

-I have started including a delete command for replaced hotfixes which should help keep the download folders clean of replaced hotfixes, which solves one of the outstanding issues.