James Bannan12 February 2008, 2:25 AM
Ever stared in horror at the number of updates a brand-new XP installation needs to bring it up to date? What if you had all those updates on a handy CD?
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When was the last time you installed a fresh copy of Windows XP SP2? The process is still straightforward and relatively quick...but then you think “I’ll just make sure the patches are up to date”, and then proceed to stare with horror at the 100+ security updates and critical fixes which Windows Update or WSUS demands you install.
One of the things to look forward to with XP Service Pack 3 is that the whole patching process is reset back to something more civilised, but until that time you’re still faced with the prospect of a massive blowout of installation time, chewed-up bandwidth and for too many reboots.
WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) does alleviate this somewhat by making all the patches available offline, but this solution is normally only used in a business environment – not every home user has access to Windows Server 2003 or the inclination to keep a WSUS database up-to-date.
Another option is to maintain an installation source (like a network share) with all the relevant patches slipstreamed. Again, this is effective if you’ve got the time to maintain it.
A better option which we’ve just discovered is the innovative work of Alek Patsouris. Entitled “Project Dakota”, it’s a self-contained boot CD which contains all the necessary updates to automatically patch a Windows XP SP2 system with all the patches available at the CD’s build time. It also contains Service Pack 2, so you can use it to bring non-SP2 systems into compliance, and it comes bundled with other third-party applications like Firefox and Quicktime.
Tutorial – Using Project Dakota
Download the latest Project Dakota build. It is a full CD ISO weighing in at 700MB, so this may take some time. You can burn the ISO to create a bootable CD, or use an image reading tool like WinISO, WinRAR or Daemon Tools to extract the contents to a shared network location. For the sake of this tutorial, I’ll assume that you’re using the CD option.
Insert the CD. This will bring up the autorun window and three options – “Run Project Dakota”, “Test Optical Drive” and “File Lists and other info”.
 Project Dakota Autorun |
The optical drive test makes sure that there are no issues with either the drive or the media, and the file list option gives the details of the patches which are available for install, and instructions on setting up a networked install. If you select this option, you’ll see that the installation script is broken up into groups or bundles of patches. After each group has been installed the system reboots.
 Project Dakota Installation |
Select “Run Project Dakota”. The next screen prompts you to go and relax, but unfortunately you can’t quite do this as the installation isn’t 100% automated. Although the patches don’t require any user intervention, there are four optional packages which do: .NET Framework 1.1, .NET Framework 2.0, IE7 and Media Player 11. You’re given the option whether or not to install these, and until you make a selection the overall process won’t proceed.
Automatic system restarts are built into the install script, so it’s obviously best not to be using the system you’re patching for anything else whilst Project Dakota is running.
Once the patching process is complete, you’re presented with a few more option screens to install third-party applications like Firefox, AVG and Flash, or to run various system tools/optimisation scripts like disabling System Restore or Disk Defragmenter. The applications may not be the latest available as they are bundled at the time of the ISO build, but it’s a very useful feature to have for offline installations or on systems with limited internet access.
 Project Dakota - Third-Party Apps |
After Project Dakota had finished running on my test system I jumped online to Windows Update and ran a check to see which patches were still outstanding. Impressively there were only nine high priority updates and two optional software updates.
 Project Dakota - Outstanding Updates |
You can re-run Project Dakota on a system which you’ve previously patched. You’ve got the option to roll back, uninstall all the updates and erase the patches, or overwrite everything and re-patch.
 Project Dakota - Reinstallation Options |
At the moment this terrific and worthwhile project is only available for Windows XP, but plans are in place to make it available for Windows 2000, Server 2000/2003, Windows Vista and Home Server.