We recommend that only advanced users and administrators download updates from the Windows Update Catalog. If you are not an advanced user or an administrator, you can download and install updates directly from the following Microsoft Web site:Note The Windows Update Catalog is not available when you use a Microsoft Windows NT 4.0-based computer to visit the Windows Update Web site. Windows NT 4.0 updates are not available for download from the Windows Update Catalog when you visit the Windows Update Web site or the Microsoft Update Web site by using a computer that is running Microsoft Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003.

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Access the Windows Update Catalog

To access the Windows Update Catalog, use one of the following methods.

Note You can only use Method 2 if your computer is running Windows 98 or Windows Millennium Edition.

Method 1: Access the Windows Update Catalog directly

To access the Windows Update Catalog directly, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

Method 2: Add the Windows Update Catalog to the update Web site

To add a link to the Windows Update Catalog to the update Web site, you must personalize the site. To do this, follow these steps.

1.	Visit the Windows Update Web site or visit the Microsoft Update Web site: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com (http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com)
2.	Click Personalize Windows Update.
3.	Click to select the Display the link to the Windows Update Catalog under See Also check box.
4.	Click Save Settings.
5.	Click the Windows Update Catalog link under See Also.

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Download Windows updates from the Windows Update Catalog

1.	Access the Windows Update Catalog. For more information, see the "Access the Windows Update Catalog" section to add driver updates to your download basket.
2.	Click Go to download basket.
3.	In the Type or browse to the download location of your choice box, either type the full path for the folder where you want to save the update or click Browse to locate the folder.
4.	Click Download Now, and then click Accept to accept the license agreement.

All the items that you selected are downloaded, and then your download history appears.

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Download driver updates from the Windows Update Catalog

1.	Access the Windows Update Catalog. For more information, see the "Access the Windows Update Catalog" section.
2.	Click Find hardware driver updates, or click Find driver updates for hardware devices.
3.	Click the appropriate hardware category for the driver update that you want to download.
4.	Click the manufacturer name, the operating system, the language, and any other items that you want to search for, and then click Search.
5.	Locate the driver that you want, and then click Add.
6.	Repeat steps 2 through 5 to find and add more driver updates to your download basket, or follow the steps in the "Download Windows updates from the Windows Update Catalog" section to add driver updates to your download basket..
7.	Click Go to download basket.
8.	In the Type or browse to the download location of your choice box, either type the full path for the folder where you want to save the update or click Browse to locate the folder.
9.	Click Download Now, and then click Accept to accept the license agreement.

All the items that you selected are downloaded, and then your download history appears.

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Locate your downloads

The location of each downloaded item appears in your download history. The location of each downloaded item automatically appears after your download is completed. To sort your previous updates by date or description, click the column headers.

To access your download history, follow these steps:

1.	Access the Windows Update Catalog. For more information, see the "Access the Windows Update Catalog" section.
2.	Click View download history.

Note Your download history is stored in the Iuhist_catalogAdmin.xml file in your Program Files\WindowsUpdate\V4 folder.

You can use the download history to locate an item, or you can browse for the item.

Windows updates are saved to a Software subfolder in the location that you specified in step 7 of the "Download Windows updates from the Windows Update Catalog" section. A language subfolder (for example, "EN" for English) is created for each language, and a manufacturer.product subfolder (for example, Com_microsoft.WindowsXP for Windows XP) is created for each manufacturer and product. An operating system subfolder (for example, x86WinXP for Windows XP) is created for each operating system, and then a subfolder is created for each update.

Driver updates are saved to a Driver subfolder in the location that you specified in step 8 of the "Download driver updates from the Windows Update Catalog" section. A language subfolder (for example, "EN" for English) is created for each language, and a manufacturer.hardware category subfolder (for example, Com_microsoft_whql.monitors for monitor drivers) is created for each manufacturer and category of driver. An operating system subfolder (for example, X86WinXP for Windows XP) is created for each operating system, and then a subfolder is created for each driver.

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Use Software Update Services

IT Professionals can use both Windows Update and the Automatic Updates service to configure a server on their corporate network to provide these updates to corporate servers and clients. This functionality can be useful in environments where some clients and servers do not have access to the Internet, or where the environment is highly managed and the corporate administrator must test the updates before they are deployed. For information about Software Update Services, visit the following Microsoft Web site:For Microsoft TechNet information about how to perform enterprise-wide driver updates by using Windows Update, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

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Use Automatic Updates and Critical Update Notification

You can use the Automatic Updates feature and the Critical Update Notification utility to keep computers up to date with the latest critical updates. IT Professionals can also use the Automatic Updates feature to keep Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows 2000 Advanced Server (Service Pack 2 or later), Windows XP Professional, and Windows XP Home Edition computers up to date with the latest critical updates from a corporate network server that is running Software Update Services. For more information about how to use Automatic Updates in Windows XP, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about how to use Automatic Updates in Windows 2000, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about how to use Automatic Updates in Windows Millennium Edition, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about the Critical Update Notification utility for Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 computers, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

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Troubleshooting

You may experience one or more of the following issues when you use Windows Update or Microsoft Update:

•	You may receive the following error message: Software update incomplete, this Windows Update software did not update successfully. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 319585 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319585/) "Software update incomplete" error message when you visit the Windows Update Web site
•	You may receive the following error message: Administrators Only (-2146828218) To install items from Windows Update, you must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 316524 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316524/) You receive an "Administrators only" error message when you try to visit the Windows Update Web site or the Microsoft Update Web site
•	You may not be able to view the Windows Update site or the Microsoft Update site if you connect to the Web site through an authenticating Web proxy that uses integrated (NTLM) proxy authentication.

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Visit the following Microsoft Web sites for information about other resources for obtaining and distributing downloads from Windows Update or from Microsoft Update.

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Installing multiple updates with only one restart

The hotfix installer included with Microsoft Windows XP and Windows 2000 post-Service Pack 3 (SP3) updates includes functionality to support multiple hotfix installations. For earlier versions of Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0, command-line tool named QChain.exe is available for download. For more information about how to install multiple updates or multiple hotfixes without restarting the computer between each installation, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

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Microsoft security resources

For the latest Microsoft security resources such as security tools, security bulletins, virus alerts, and general security guidance, visit the following Microsoft Web site:For more information about the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer tool (MBSA), visit the following Microsoft Web site:

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The Microsoft Download Center

For more information about how to download files from the Microsoft Download Center, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

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Product-specific download pages

Windows XP

For Windows XP downloads, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

Windows 2000

For Windows 2000 downloads, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

Internet Explorer

For Internet Explorer downloads, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

Windows Media Player

For Windows Media Player downloads, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

Office Updates

For Office updates, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

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