information   Information

Most users obtain Windows Updates automatically through the Windows Update Service (aka WUS). Sometimes, even so, an update may fail to download or install properly. At other times, Microsoft releases updates only into the Microsoft Update Catalog. Either manner, users must visit the Catalog, then discover, download, and install a suitable update on their own. That's why this approach to applying updates is sometimes called "manual updating."

For case, as I write this tutorial, Microsoft has recently released KB4090007 entitled "Intel microcode updates." This detail update provides a microcode update to patch Intel Skylake, Kaby Lake, and Coffee Lake processors. At present this update is not bachelor through the Windows Update Service. To apply this update to a suitable PC -- that is, a PC running ane of the covered processors -- individuals must visit the Microsoft Update Catalog. And so, they must locate the KB4090007 update, choose the version that'southward right for their Windows installation, download, and so install it.

This same full general sequence of steps also applies when seeking to install an update manually that Windows Update fails to install automatically. Either way, the steps are the same. Those steps provide the subject matter for this tutorial.

Contents

 Click links to spring to whatever part


Stride one: Identifying the Update Particular
Step ii: Visit the Microsoft Update Catalog
Step 3: Select and Download the Proper File
Step 4: Install the Update

Step 1

Identifying the Update Detail


Items in the Microsoft Update Catalog are unremarkably associated with specific Cognition Base articles that depict a specific update. Such detail names usually take the class KBxxxxxxx , where KB stands for Knowledge Base, and xxxxxxxxis a 7-digit number that uniquely identifies the download associated with the KB article. For example, the item proper name for the "Intel microcode updates" is KB409007. That identifies an item for which nosotros'll search in the Microsoft Update Catalog (MUC) in this tutorial. When post-obit along, you will demand to identify a currently available catalog item yous can really download from the MUC online. I suggest you visit Settings → Update & Security → Windows Update → View installed update history. From there, you can selection out a recently-applied update item with which to do, like this:

Download and Install Windows Update from Microsoft Update Catalog-1.findkbitem.jpg
Choose a recently-downloaded update that's Non a cumulative update (too big, takes as well long for a "play item").


Again, for the purposes of this tutorial, we'll use KB409007 as our working instance. Updates come and go in the Catalog, however, and then you may desire to pick something more current and recent to apply instead to practice on/with.

warning   Warning

If you lot're just practicing, you don't really need to install the update yous download. If you endeavor to install an update that's already been installed, the Windows Update Standalone Installer will tell you it'due south already in identify, and turn down to install it. Because yous don't want to install an update you don't really need, I propose yous salve actual installation for when it's necessary or recommended.


Tip   Tip

Microsoft distinguishes between "Delta" and "Cumulative" update packages. Delta packages only include one month's worth of updates. A Cumulative package includes all updates up to the fourth dimension of its release, and involves a large file. That'southward why I recommend against practicing with a Cumulative update, because it is likely to be hundreds of megabytes up to one or more gigabytes in size. See this Windows IT Pro Heart commodity for more information on ii types of updates you're most likely to find in your update history. That said, information technology is best practice to install Cumulative updates when a Windows 10 arrangement is in demand of one. While they may be too large to play with easily, they are necessary when offered through Windows Update.


Step two

Visit the Microsoft Update Catalog


The Microsoft Update Catalog resides at https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com. Once upon a time, you had to utilise a Microsoft browser (either Internet Explorer or Edge) to access it properly. These days, information technology works with all modernistic browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari, amid others. If you lot visit this URL, hither's what you'll encounter:

Download and Install Windows Update from Microsoft Update Catalog-2.muc.jpg


Type the proper noun of the KB particular y'all wish to retrieve from the Itemize into the search box. The example item nosotros're using for the tutorial is KB4090007, so that'south what we'll prove next:

Download and Install Windows Update from Microsoft Update Catalog-3.muc.kb4090007.jpg


After you enter the particular name, you can either hit the return central on your keyboard, or click the Search button at the right-hand side of the search box. This instructs the Catalog to find the item for you. If y'all enter the name of a valid item that'southward available in the Catalog, y'all'll get a search response that looks something like this:

Download and Install Windows Update from Microsoft Update Catalog-4.muc.kb4090007.rslts.jpg


If an detail that matches the search cord you entered cannot be found, you'll get something that looks like this instead. If that happens to you, cheque your string and make sure it'south entered correctly. If it has been entered correctly, you're out of luck: there's no item in the Itemize that matches the particular name y'all entered.

Download and Install Windows Update from Microsoft Update Catalog-5.muc.name-error.jpg
I deliberately inverse the right-most 0 in the item name to a ane to create an intentional mistake. No item found!

Pace three

Select and Download the Proper File


If you lot read the text for each of the two items that evidence upwardly in the search results for KB4090007 above, you'll come across they read as follows:

2018-03 Update for Windows x Version 1709 for x64-based Systems (KB4090007)
2018-03 Update for Windows 10 Version 1709 for x86-based Systems (KB4090007)

If you're running a 64-bit Windows ten installation choose the top one; if a 32-bit installation, choose the bottom 1. Click the corresponding download link to the far right.

This is a pretty simple example of what yous'll find in the Microsoft Update Catalog. To present a more than complex example, here's what the Catalog returns if yous search on RealTek Hard disk drive Audio driver version number, six.0.1.8383:

Download and Install Windows Update from Microsoft Update Catalog-6.muc.realtekdrv.jpg

warning   Warning

Notice that for some updates you must not only specify bittedness for your target OS (32 or 64 bit), just also select the proper Windows release name as well (Windows and later on, Windows 10 Fall Creators Update and later, and Windows 10 Anniversary Update and later on are all options among which you must choose). For a small-scale number of users today (but a larger number in times to come as AlwaysConnected devices start to proliferate) one may need to cull the ARM64 architecture instead. Whenever you seek to install an update from the Catalog, you MUST select the correct 1. And so please: when faced with a complex set of options like the one shown above read through them completely, and be sure to cull the i that matches your electric current Windows installation!


Click Download to grab the update that you lot wish to install, in any event. By default it should be copied into your "Downloads" binder (on the path specified using surroundings variables as "%Userprofile%\Downloads"). Of course, if yous salve it to a different location, y'all'll demand to go there instead to launch or access the update in the next pace.

Tip   Tip

Thanks to input from other TF VIPs, I've been advised to remind users that if they have restricted bandwidth or bandwidth caps to contend with, they can (and probably should) schedule their updates when they're using somebody else'due south bandwidth for downloads. Thus, y'all might cull to download updates at a coffee store, at the office, or at another identify where you tin can go free Internet access, if such access is a scarce or limited resource at dwelling.


Step 4

Install the Update


Once the file has downloaded, it will come in one of several formats. The two almost common of these formats are cabinet (.CAB) and Microsoft executable update (.MSU) files. The 64-bit version of the file that corresponds to KB4090007 is named windows10.0-kb4090007-x64_7063a0b6a38e2a648aa1d77570503f7062360c9d.msu. (Note the "x64" that follows the KB ID, and precedes the GUID for this download in the proper name string).

Installing MSU files is easy. Because they're executable, yous need only to double-click them (or right-click their filenames, so select "Open" from the resulting pop-upwards menu) to make them run. A window from the Windows Update Standalone Installer will open, and provide data almost installation progress and status. But substantially, that's all at that place is to it.

Installing CAB files tin exist trickier. If the CAB file is a driver (as in the preceding RealTek HD Audio Driver version 6.0.1.8383 shown in Step 3 earlier), you can utilize File Explorer (or a 3rd-party tool like 7-Cypher) to unpack its contents into a binder on a bulldoze at your disposal. You lot tin can then employ the "Update driver" capabilities in Device Director to update the corresponding device driver(southward).

Tip   Tip

In that location'southward a TenForums tutorial "Install CAB file in Windows 10" that provides further information and instructions on what to exercise with transmission updates that come in CAB files. Delight consult this if you lot need additional guidance or information. Come across thread #2 for guidance on how to unpack CAB file contents into its ain file binder or directory.

Step v

Microsoft Update Catalog Admission Methods & Alternatives


Delight note that the News forum hither at TenForums routinely includes items for Windows updates. They not just mention KB numbers routinely, but the besides include links to the Microsoft Update Catalog that readers may follow to catch those updates direct. Thus, y'all may not need to use this tutorial very oft, provided that you go on upward with the TenForums News posts!

On the other mitt, there are various alternatives to the Microsoft Update Catalog readily available. 2 come up immediately to mind:

  1. The Windows Hotfix Downloader or WHDownloader (http://world wide web.majorgeeks.com/mg/getmirr...nloader,1.html) grabs a list of available (and applicable) KB items from the MUC. You tin can simply unzip the program to your desktop or some binder from which it volition be run. Select your Office and Windows editions, cheque the KBs you wish to grab, and then simply download those updates. Dead simple!
  2. The Windows Update MiniTool or WUMT ( http://world wide web.majorgeeks.com/files/deta..._minitool.html) does something like, in that it presents a list of bachelor downloads from which users may check off the ones they actually wish to grab. I'm a big fan of WUMT myself because if the "Include drivers" checkbox is checked in this tool, it will likewise check and download device drivers for installation as well. IMO it does a corking job at this job (better than many other 3rd-party, fee-based programs) and it'due south free.

That's information technology.
--Ed--

  • Windows 11 Tutorials