WSUS Offline Update provides you with a secure way to update your operating system and Microsoft Office applications, creating a locally stored package that contains the latest patches and the most recent security updates. Thereby, you can use the downloaded files in order to perform system updates on any Windows machine in the absence of an Internet connection.
Features of WSUS Offline Update Tool
Create offline update scripts for your operating system
Focusing on functionality rather than looks, the application features a simplistic interface that only comprises a few options dedicated to customizing the downloading operation.
It supports various editions of the Windows operating system, namely Server 2003, XP, Visa, Server 2008, 2008 R2, Server 2012, 7, 8 and 8.1. As for the Office suite, it can download the latest updates for the 2007, 2010 or 2013 editions, in various languages.
As Microsoft will discontinue its support for some versions (Windows XP and Office 2003 this year), WSUS Offline Update will consider them legacy products, removing them from the list of compatible editions.
Grabs updates for various Windows components
The application enables you to choose the desired operating system, the architecture type and the language, where available (since the majority of update packages are multilingual). You can instruct it to include available service packs, updated versions of Microsoft Security Essentials, C++ Runtime libraries, the .NET Framework and Windows Defender virus definitions in the the downloaded packages.
An installation script is created, which can be then deployed on any machine. Alternatively, you can set the application to generate an ISO file containing all the grabbed files or copy all the updates to a specific location.
An update method suitable for offline systems only
WSUS Offline Update can come in handy for downloading an update package for computers that are not connected to the Internet, allowing system updating in offline mode. It can also prove useful in case you installed a fresh new copy of Windows or returned to a previously working restore point, saving you the time needed to get all the updates.
However, in order to make sure that you have the latest fixes at all times, you must use it more frequent that you might want to. As such, for computers with an active Internet connection, using the standard updating method is much more convenient.