Updates :: Share Windows Update Download Files Between Two Machines?
Sep 15, 2014
If you have, say, two laptops both running Windows 8.1, and it gets to the monthly Microsoft update Tuesday it seems crazy to have both machines independently downloading the same set of updates totalling around 300MB as was the case yesterday. Is it possible for one machine to run the updates, and then share the download files with another machine - whether via the local network (LAN) or via a usbkey or other media?
Certainly on my linux machines I have one machine run udpates and I then share the update package cache with all other machines saving considerable bandwidth on my home broadband connection. It would make a lot of sense to be able to do the same for Windows machines running the same version of Windows. The saving would increase even more if there was more than two machines in the same household such as if all members of the same family had their own machine.
My System : I have two machines that share two monitors by the use of two KVMs. They both use Nviria GeForce vraphics cards (with twin DVI outputs).
One machine is Win 7 Pro X64 and the other is Win 8 Pro X64. Both have the latest Nvidia drivers. Both are full retail legal versions of the OS.
My Problem : When I switch between machines I usually lose one screen and it cannot be reactivated without a reboot. Sometimes the other screen reverts to its default resolution. This happens on every switch over with Win 8 and sometimes with Win 7 but not always.
I have discoverd that if I switch the 2nd screen forst and then the main KVM (which has the keyboard and mouse) then usually the Win 7 machine continues to see both screens. The Win 8 machine virtually always loses the primary screen (the mouse and keyboard attached to this KVM are unaffected and switch correctly always)
I suspect this might be an nvidia problem but short og buying a new graphics card I have no way of determining this.
I have check for updates set to Never. Occasionally I manually check for updates. Thing is, after 10 minutes I get the same 40 important and 2 optional update descriptions. Is there some way to set the high water mark so that I only get new notices without installing any updates? It's not exactly intuitive.
I format my PC like a every 6 months. The most annoying part is the updates of Windows 8 which is like more than a gigabyte. I want to backup the updates and reinstall them without downloading them again. Is it possible?
Just updated to Update 1 on Win 8.1 on two machines. When I open the PC Settings App from Start Screen or Taskbar all the options are ok except PC and devices. When I select this on the app menu the app crashes back to the desktop.I suspect it's the new Drive Manager in that menu option. Other machine works fine with this option.
I have a 60mb fibre broadband - on my old laptop (Win 8.1)with no external antenna, only what is built into the machine - I am getting over 62mb on several tests. My desktop - fourcore intel i5, 8mb ram on Windows 8 has no antenna either so I have an Alfa (AWUS036NH) with a 6db gain aerial attached, is struggling to reach 20mb. They are located side by side.
They do not show in Disk cleanup at all and there must be several GB of them. Since everything is working good, without any problems related to updates I figured I should delete some parasitic files from the system. If nothing at least system/disk backup file will be smaller.
I have been trouble sharing files with windows 8. I basically went into network & sharing center and turned all of the options to ON (or yes, whatever lol).
The machines are both running windows 8 on a wifi network.
I noticed a few things: If you right click the wireless network, you can "toggle" and turn on/off file sharing. This is a tad confusing, windows 7 never had this option. Also, do you need to be on a "homegroup" in order to share on windows 8?
There are a million variables!
Variable 1: Variable 1 is comprised of a million different variables and is the "network and sharing center". I Have all options set to "On", and still can't share.
Variable 2: Variable 2 is the right clicking on the WiFi network and clicking "turn network sharing on or off". Mine is set to off at the moment, but why is this separate from variable 1?
Variable 3: The final variable I can think of having a homegroup. I don't have a homegroup setup right now, do I need all machines to be on a homegroup to start file sharing between computers?
What I want: I want to be able to share entire computer contents between machines.
Back in the windows 7 days I used to be able to hit "run" and type in //computerame/c$ and I had complete file access to other computers on the network. How to accomplish that with Windows 8? That way I can access all files, not just "shares" on computers on the network.
PS: Right now, when I try to connect to other machines on the network, I get a username/password prompt. No matter what I input I get an error and it won't work.
For a project I have to install Windows 8.1 64 bit on several machines including updates.
As you can imagine updating each machine individually can be extremely time consuming. I was wondering if there's a way to manually download all the latest windows update files and put them in the Windows 8.1 ISO, so that once Windows is installed on the machine it will be up to date. if I haven't explained myself correctly
So some background. I had issues with being able to install ANYTHING from an MSI file. Then I wasn't able to install any updates from Windows Update. I then reinstalled Windows, and am now facing the same issue after a few days. I would rather not reinstall yet again.
I tried doing System Restore, but it just hangs. Windows Installer hangs on "preparing to install".
I want to upgrade a computer from Windows 8 to 8.1 but I have a very low download allocation (2GB/month) at that computer. I would like to download the upgrade on another computer (a Mac) that has a much higher download allowance and then transfer that to the computer I need to update. Is this at all possible?
I've been trying to download windows update on a fresh install of windows 8 pro with different dvds like Windows 8 Pro With media center & without media center{With & without activating it}. But every time I tried downloading it I get "Code 8024402F Windows update ran into a problem". I've checked my internet connection which is ok, I've tried downloading it with Windows defender, Windows firewall and Windows smart screen off but to of no avail
Location is not available to mapped network drive in Windows 8 I'm trying to copy a file from my mapped network drive, which is something I've done 1,000+ times in Windows 7, but for some strange reason I get a location unavailable error when trying it in 8. I tried deleting and remapping the drive and then tried restarting the computer. Neither of these resolved the issue. I've noticed that I can copy it to my desktop but nowhere else. See the attached images for more information.
I have an orange crossover cable that I have connected to both machines and I set up sharing on both but the Windows XP machine doesn't show the 8.1 machine. I'm trying to pull some movies and music off my 8.1 laptop because I use my XP desktop as a media server of sorts.
I can't figure out how to get them to recognize each other and my connection just says "limited."
Is it possible to download win8 update packages to install from USB?
I have many machines all trying to update at the same time over wifi and takes hours just for the check to finish and many many hours for the updates... I figured if I could download a batch to USB, copy to few USB sticks then pop them on?
I have Laptop and Desktop (windows 7 ultimate) I use it to play games, But I wanna transfer my Games (files) to my new laptop using Ethernet Cable or Crossover cable. I lost my 16 gb USB so I just transfer via Ethernet Cable but How?
I've tried for several days after several reboots, etc. I am running a Dell OEM version of Windows 8 on an Optiplex. It just sits at "Downloading" and when I hover over it it says "0% complete". Apparently I can't use the ISO because I need a key which the OEM version does not have. how I can get this thing to update?
My update history does not show any updates after 1/22/14. I know for sure that I have successfully installed at least a few dozen updates since then (almost all of them involving Windows Defender).
I have a couple of files that I am trying to download on my new PC. My new PC has Windows 8.1. The files appear to be downloading but get to 98-99% and then stop. I eventually get an error message. I am not a home posting so I don't have the exact error. It is either oxo or oco 000005. I have Norton 360 and it says the file is safe. The one file I have tried to download multiple times is the Garmin Lifetime Updater. This is an exe. file.
I want to download windows 8.1 to try it out but it is saying ISO files are not yet available. I know windows 8.1 preview has been released because i have seen it on YouTube.
I have downloaded some applications, and it won't allow me to delete them (it keeps saying the file is open in that application--I checked task manager, and there's nothing there). I read that a program called Unlocker can work, but when I try to run the setup, nothing happens. This is happening for all applications in my Download folder.
I am on a limited speed line and Windows 8.1 has started to download the update. I now find that is it is some 3G in size and that will take days. How can I stop the download?
How can I stop the download of Windows 8.1?
Effectively I cannot do any online work until I can stop the download hogging the limited bandwidth.
I have an xps 8500 and it won't update to windows 8.1 from the store. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the update KB2871389 and nothing happens. . I am also running in administrator mode while I am doing this and the windows troubleshooter says something about admin privileges.
The case is that Chrome fails on every and any single file that I try to download.
I'm being told that the anti-virus scan failed and so I found some turorial on how to update the registry in Windows (I run 8.1) in order to make the virus scan work after a download is completed. This did not work. I already tried to run CCleaner to fix registry issues, I ran Malwarebytes on a full scan and I also re-installed Chrome to no change.
I have checked that I am fully able to download files in Windows Explorer 10 just as expected, so it would seem that it's something with Chrome and I was advised to look at the .temp folder's size but it was completely empty and I also have lots of free harddrive space.
I have Windows 8.1 RTM installed on my computer. Some days ago, Microsoft released the GA updates for the system. Windows update downloaded them, but they failed to install... I've downloaded the updates manually and applied them in the correct order... But no luck, the updates fail to install...
