I specify a folder where all updates get stored. Each gets stored in a
subdirectory by the product name although the naming scheme isn't
immediately intuitive and you'll have to think about which subfolder
name belongs to which product. In that folder gets created an installer
program (UpdateInstaller.exe).
I extract and save the WSUSoffline program under C:\WSUS\WSUSoffline. I
save the retrieved updates and create the installer program under
C:\WSUS\WSUSupdates. I separate the program (its folder, subfolders,
and program files) from the update store folder. This is so I can
retrieve and extract a new version of the program without ever having to
touch the update store.
Eventually I save the C:\WSUS\WSUSupdates folder onto a USB-attached
drive that I'll use later to do the updates. If you don't want to use a
USB drive with a free capacity 16GB, or higher, (currently my
WSUSupdates folder is under 10GB in size) then select the option to have
WSUSoffline store the updates by individual products so you could slice
them up across multiple drives.
Running UpdateInstaller is tersely described at:
http://www.wsusoffline.net/docs/
You get the idea. In the same way you selected which updates to
retrieve is the same selections you make when you run the installer as
to which products you want to update. That page has a couple links to
videos (AVI files) to show how to use the product.
Sorry, but I've been lucky in not having to use the update store created
by WSUSoffline. Although I'm saving the updates for Windows XP, I'm not
using that OS on any of my home computers anymore nor any at work (we
don't need to include that OS platform in our regression tests anymore).
It looks like you get to update the selected product when you run the
installer up to the same level as for all the updates you retrieved. I
don't see that you get to elect which particular updates are included as
you would when you visit the WU site. For that level of detail in
selecting the specific updates you want (i.e., you want some but not
all) then you probably have to look at running your own WSUS server,
something that I'm never going to bother with learning or doing.
Youtube has several videos on how to use WSUSoffline. As search there:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wsusoffline&sm=3
finds, for example, the following videos:
(this guy created separate update stores for each product by ISO image)
My guess is that if you download updates for only 1 product then that's
the only product their installer can update. Yeah, obvious, but I have
seen tutorials (probably their own) where a Software tab was shown (but
the panel for it wasn't displayed). I expect if you elect to download
updates for multiple products that the Software tab in their installer
lets you select which products to update during that run of their
installer.
If you're a relatively new user that started out on Windows Vista, or
later, are were weaned on myriads of wizards to guide you through each
step in a complex process then you'll be disappointed at the UI for
WSUSoffline. You just check the boxes to select the products for which
you want to amass updates into local files and when you click Start
you'll be presented with the command shell that is so daunting to many
users that never used a version of Windows before 2000 (i.e., in earlier
9x-based versions of Windows where DOS was still needed). WSUSoffline
has a GUI frontend but its work is exercised using a CLI (command-line
interface) to a program.
