Installing Multiple Updates With One Restart

[LoneCrusader]

I'm in the process of trying to create semi-slisptreamed or updated install sources for my various Windows 9X versions. I know some of you who've been here a long time may feel that I am trying to re-invent the wheel but this is just for my own use and knowledge.

Mainly I was wondering if there are any known issues with installing multiple updates and/or hotfixes that require a restart and only restarting once.

If these updates/hotfixes set something that is supposed to be done during a restart, does installing another update/hotfix supersede and erase the settings of the previous one, or just add to it?

Will everything that should be done during the restart for each update/hotfix still be completed properly?

MDGx or anyone familiar with this please chime in.

[Glenn9999]

Mainly I was wondering if there are any known issues with installing multiple updates and/or hotfixes that require a restart and only restarting once.

Actually there is the issue of whether the latest version of files are placed onto the system if multiple patches are installed. In that sense, the file associated with Microsoft KB815062 is needed to resolve this.

Also, certain switches are required to automate patch installs (make them not show UI, not restart, and so on). These vary depending on the patch in question, but a number of them are very similar. If you want to know the list, I would have to pull out my data on them, but I can provide that if you want.

Also if it helps, you can try Batch Patcher 1.03, which automates a lot of the task of installing multiple updates.

If these updates/hotfixes set something that is supposed to be done during a restart, does installing another update/hotfix supersede and erase the settings of the previous one, or just add to it?

Generally, outside of the use of 815062, updates are sequential.

Will everything that should be done during the restart for each update/hotfix still be completed properly?

Generally yes. Microsoft always has exceptions, but most (99.99%) of the patches work properly if you install multiple ones at once and then reboot as opposed to installing them individually and rebooting after each one.

[Fredledingue]

Does that mean that if you answer "NO" to thequestion "Do you want to restart your computer now?" to all patches save the last one, all the patches will install successfuly?

If this is true, then you only need a script which launch all the installation file sand click on "No" auomaticaly then reboot.

[LoneCrusader]

Actually there is the issue of whether the latest version of files are placed onto the system if multiple patches are installed. In that sense, the file associated with Microsoft KB815062 is needed to resolve this.

The way it's written that page seems to be directed at Windows 2000 and XP only, or is this one of those pages they have "edited" to remove relevant 9X content?

Also, certain switches are required to automate patch installs (make them not show UI, not restart, and so on). These vary depending on the patch in question, but a number of them are very similar. If you want to know the list, I would have to pull out my data on them, but I can provide that if you want.

I've been looking into that, found some relevant info with Google, but any help would be appreciated.

Right now I am working on integrating several updates into Windows 95 C OSR 2.5, figured I would start there and anything I learn should apply to 98SE as well.

So far I've had some success, managed to integrate the Windows 95 Y2K Update and DCOM95 by adding them to SETUPC.INF, and replaced the forced IE 4.0 install in 95C with IE 4.01 SP2.

I may also have found a solution to "slipstreaming" my FIX95CPU processor update, if I can manage to keep the newer files from being overwritten by other updates.

[Glenn9999]

The way it's written that page seems to be directed at Windows 2000 and XP only, or is this one of those pages they have "edited" to remove relevant 9X content?

Yeah, they edit/change pages to remove references to software they don't support anymore (you see this on the API references all the time). But that doesn't necessarily mean it won't work on the older Windows. 815062 works on ME (I patched a few ME installs for about a year or two in sequence using 815062 and either batch scripts or Batch Patcher) so it should work on 95/98 too.

I've been looking into that, found some relevant info with Google, but any help would be appreciated.

I know this works on ME, but I think 95/98 patches were similar. There's 2 or 3 more patch types, but I don't think they were ever relevant to 95/98/ME (except for .NET 1.1 if 95/98 ever supported that).

Patch Type #1 - WEXTRACT
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/197147/

/q	Specifies quiet mode, or suppresses prompts.
/q:u	Specifies user-quiet mode, which presents some dialog boxes to the user.
/q:a	Specifies administrator-quiet mode, which does not present any dialog boxes to the user.
/t:path	Specifies the target folder for extracting files.
/c	Extracts the files without installing them. If /t: path is not specified, you are prompted for a target folder.
/c:path	Specifies the UNC path and name of the Setup .inf or .exe file.
/r:n	Never restarts the computer after installation.
/r:i	Prompts the user to restart the computer if a restart is required, except when used with /q:a.
/r:a	Always restarts the computer after installation.
/r:s	Restarts the computer after installation without prompting the user.
/n:v	No version checking - Install the package over any previous version.

You usually want /q:a /r:n if you are installing multiple patches. Of course it depends on the patch (there was one in ME that had a wierd command-line that I'm thinking of).

Edited November 9, 2010 by Glenn9999

[LoneCrusader]

Thanks for the help so far.

Unfortunately now my whole project is sidelined, when I started up my machine that I use for my projects I'm faced with this:

One or more of your disk drives may have developed bad sectors.

Press any key to run ScanDisk with surface analysis on these drives.

So now I get to have fun moving all of my work to a different hard disk and making some backups before I can get back to experimenting.