Windows Update Hates Me

I haven’t been able to install any Windows XP updates on my Parallels virtual machine since mid-November.  I have no idea why.  I continue to get the bubble notifying me that updates are ready to be installed, but installation always fails.  Futhermore, we run WSUS so I shouldn’t have to do anything but be online and login to get updates.  I’ve pored over Microsoft’s many unhelpful knowledge base articles on the subject, trying all their “solutions” with no success.  I’ll spare you the list of all the solutions I tried and tell you the one that worked: AutoPatcher.  Bless you boys!  To quote Wikipedia,

AutoPatcher is an alternative to Microsoft’s Windows Update developed by Antonis Kaladis and Jason Kelley, and a comprehensive collection of up-to-date security patches, addons and registry tweaks collated into a single package designed to update a Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows 2000 SP4, Windows Server 2003 SP2 or Windows Vista SP1 system from a local file, without the need to use Windows Update or connect to a network each time.

Works like a charm, and it’s far faster than Microsoft’s own update agent.  I don’t know if AutoPatcher is ready for prime-time in an enterprise environment, but I do recommend it for personal use if you can’t get your machine up to date.