I only yesterday mentioned an alternative to Windows Update, now there is another alternative you may want to consider. Windows Updates Downloader is a free utility that will download updates to many of Microsoft’s products so you can save them to a DVD-R or whatever. It is very easy to use, once you know how to set it up.

To get started download the installer, currently “WUD224B849Setup.exe”, and install it. Next, from the same front page download the .ulz file that you are interested in from the big list. Once it is downloaded, you can double click the .ulz file to make it available from the program. Next, start up the program. The .ulz file that you installed will be available to chose in the list near the top. Select the updates you are interested in, change any options you may want to change, and select “Download”. It’s really that easy. One other thing is to check back frequently for updated .ulz files, as you need to update that to get the latest files downloaded.