Sort Patches by KB number

[major4579]

I've decided that I wanted Autopatcher to display the patches in KB order so I wrote a program that modifies the APM files to do just that:

If it's not against the forum rules and if anyone is interested I would upload the file.

-John

Edited August 16, 2007 by major4579

[kimsland]

Is AutoPatcher Open Source?

Such a format (numerical) would be better, I believe presently it's in date released format.

How big is this program ? And does it add to AutoPatcher or is it just viewed to show the order and not continue to the install phase ?

[PsiMoon314]

Hi,

Numerical order might work for most hotfixes however remember that some updates would need to be installed before others can install correctly.

You should check the dependancies of hofixes and patches to ensure that important updates are not installed out of sequence.

For example the Windows Installer 3.1 update needs to be installed before most other hotfixes, WGA needs to be installed before IE7 and WMP11 ect.

Frankly if you wanted to sort all of the WMP10 and IE hotfixes into their own sections that would be far more useful! :)

Kind Regards

Simon

[+theblazingangel MVC]

what exactly does this do? does it simply modify the apm files, is it a hacked copy of autopatcher.exe, or is it your own app?

if it's either of the last two, our project manager won't be happy!

if it's the first, what exactly does it change? if it simply modifies the title fields, okay, perhaps we could do this in the main releases and have the official autopatcher.exe order everything alphabetically; if it changes the release date property, then thats not okay, the release date property determines the order of installation, which is important to preserve.

either way, i'm going to have to request that in the interest of our users, that the OP does NOT post their program. just as you shouldn't open an unknown email attachment, you shouldn't run an unknown program - i'm sure the OP has only good intentions, but you can never know!

[major4579]

Kimsland and theblazingangel,

The utility is standalone, i.e., independent of the Autopatcher program. What it does is change the APM files for each of the patches.

It modifies the Title so that the KB number comes first (see jpg).

It modifies the ReleaseDate so that the list is sorted by the KB Number.

You run it once on a directory of APM files.

PsiMoon314,

Good point - I was assuming that the patches themselves check for dependencies. Honestly I'm not sure how Autopatcher determines the order to install the various patches.

I did this because I recently patched a couple of computers (I run Autopatcher repeatedly until no more patches are selected) and then double checked with Windows Update which listed a number of missing patches. They were all included with Autopatcher but I had to manually select them (by KB number). I found it took too long to find the patches witth the way they were displayed.

Any way I'd love to know if doing this adversely affects how Autopatcher works!

theBlazingAngel,

Thank you for the clarification about the ReleaseDate. (Since my utility preserved the original release date I can put that back to what it was). If AP was changed so that it orders everything alphabetically that would be great!.

If given permission, I would post the source code - as it is written in Autoit3.

I was only trying to help - not cause problems - I do respect and appreciate what you and the developers of autopacher.exe have done.

-John