How can I install hotfixes silently to speed up a fresh Windows 7 installation?
You can download updates for Windows 7 from Microsoft here. Download the required updates and put them all in the same folder. Some updates must be kept in their original download folder since they contain several files - install these manually or via a separate script. These msu files are Windows Update Standalone Installer files. See refs: 1 and 2.
To run msu files silently without any interaction try the following:
- Open an admin level command prompt. It is crucial that it is admin level
- CD to the folder containing the hotfixes, make sure the prompt shows the full, correct path.
- Then run one of these commands depending on your OS (first one for 64-bit computer, second one for older x86 computers. Not sure if a 64-bit computer also needs some x86 hotfixes. Just do a single star *.msu to install all hotfixes):
for %h in (*x64*.msu) do start /wait wusa "%cd%\%h" /quiet /norestart
for %h in (*x86*.msu) do start /wait wusa "%cd%\%h" /quiet /norestart
Some hotfixes have prerequisites, some hotfix are deprecated, and some are outdated. Especially those relating to IE. You can run the command a couple of times to account for some of these variables. Check in the event viewer (configuration view) what hotfixes installed and which failed by error code.
Trench tip: No responsibility accepted, but when I install a fresh computer I disable system restore to speed things up and avoid too many unnecessary system images from being created during hotfix installation. I would not recommend this, it is easy to forget to reactivate, but it does speed things up significantly. For a computer in use (as opposed to fresh build), I would never do this.