Force a service pack install?

TheBigCheese · 20 Nov 2009 at 17:47

Hi guys

I'm in a bit of a quandry..

I've just formatted and reinstalled Vista Home Premium 64 on a machine that was stuck in an endless failed update cycle.

I've done all the Windows updates and it's now saying that no new updates are required but I can't see that the service packs are installed...system information shows this:

What should I do? Should I manually download and install the service packs, or have they installed and I didn't realise?

I didn't check the 74 critical updates, just clicked install...so I'm a bit stumped. :confused:

neil_g · 20 Nov 2009 at 18:59

download the SP2 file from microsoft.com/downloads

theheyes · 20 Nov 2009 at 21:49

Windows Update does that sometimes, only for updates to appear a day or so later. I can only assume it's downloading in the background.

Get them from the site (make sure they are the x64 version) and remember you need both and to install them in order (obviously)

Theguy · 20 Nov 2009 at 23:17

by the way, if memory serves, you would need to go SP1 and then SP2, i dont think they allow you to go straght from pain vista to SP2..

DustyMiller · 21 Nov 2009 at 09:38

MS service packs are always cumulative. Sp2 includes all of SP1 fixes. Always has been,always will be.

nightmare99 · 21 Nov 2009 at 10:13

MS service packs are always cumulative. Sp2 includes all of SP1 fixes. Always has been,always will be.

I'm pretty sure that is not the case for Vista.

Dolph · 21 Nov 2009 at 10:21

nightmare99 said:
I'm pretty sure that is not the case for Vista.

Indeed. Since they got windows update working properly Service packs are not cumulative.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd262148.aspx

Indeed, there are some required stand alone updates before you can even install SP1.

TheBigCheese · 21 Nov 2009 at 10:34

Thanks for the posts guys

Dolph said:
Indeed, there are some required stand alone updates before you can even install SP1.

This is what I'm worried about...I thought there was could be an issue as device manager was showing that a driver wasn't installed, but installing the motherboard drivers fixed that.

Now I'm sat with a PC that seems to be showing everything is fine, with no updates available and no service packs... :confused:

Dolph · 21 Nov 2009 at 11:07

Is it a vlite or slipstream install? Sometimes things can be removed in that process that prevent things working via WU correctly.

Failing that, leave it on for a few hours and check for updates every so often usually gets it going.

theheyes · 21 Nov 2009 at 12:42

Vista x64 SP1:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...4B-32B2-41CC-BD8B-D71EDA5EC07C&displaylang=en

Vista x64 SP2:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...4A-55EC-4972-A0D7-B1A6FEDF51A7&displaylang=en

As mentioned you need both and always back up what you want before applying service packs. Have fun.

TheBigCheese · 22 Nov 2009 at 17:53

Thanks very much for the replies and links, it's much appreciated!

Happily it's as Dolph suggested, leaving it on while I was installing applications and manually asking it to keep checking worked fine!

It needed to install a couple of important updates then gave me SP1...a few more updates and then it asked me for SP2, currently done a few more updates since then.

So thanks again and it's sorted!