Update Catalog Seach Syntax ??

Question- what is the correct syntax to be able to use Windows Catalog Search?

Lets suppose I want to seach and retreive a list of all Windows XP updates
that are for English language. The Seach syntax does not appear to honour
"standard" practise of + or - so entering
windows xp +english
gives a whole bunch of other languages. Entering
windows xp english
gives the same result.

How is an administrator supposed to retreive updates for a number of
different XP PCs which are not net connected - without using WSUS??
The 'personalise' and Administrator options appear to have disappeared from
the Update site and the catalog site UI is unacceptable and certainly not
what was available from Microsoft in the past. I hope someone within
Micrsosoft is dealing with this problem.

I completely agree. I need to update a dozen machines, which are on an
encrypted network with no possible method of connecting to the internet
(government computers). How am I suppose to keep them up to date, when 1.
Microsoft kills the only REAL solution, autopatcher, and then 2. pulls this
with the catalog.
I can't wait to hear the solution from microsoft representatives.

"Bobj" wrote:
> How is an administrator supposed to retreive updates for a number of
> different XP PCs which are not net connected - without using WSUS??
> The 'personalise' and Administrator options appear to have disappeared from
> the Update site and the catalog site UI is unacceptable and certainly not
> what was available from Microsoft in the past. I hope someone within
> Micrsosoft is dealing with this problem.
>

Yo, Microsoft, you listening?

This is the exact question I came here looking for an answer for. I can't
use WSUS, and I don't feel like dissecting one of my unclass systems to
catalog all of the post-SP2 fixes I need to download.

With all the technology at your disposal, it shouldn't be hard to set up a
customized search to find the items like we are trying to do. If you need
help, just ask - I could do it for you, but I charge a pretty hefty fee.

"Bobj" wrote:

> Question- what is the correct syntax to be able to use Windows Catalog Search?
>
> Lets suppose I want to seach and retreive a list of all Windows XP updates
> that are for English language. The Seach syntax does not appear to honour
> "standard" practise of + or - so entering
> windows xp +english
> gives a whole bunch of other languages. Entering
> windows xp english
> gives the same result.
>
> How is an administrator supposed to retreive updates for a number of
> different XP PCs which are not net connected - without using WSUS??
> The 'personalise' and Administrator options appear to have disappeared from
> the Update site and the catalog site UI is unacceptable and certainly not
> what was available from Microsoft in the past. I hope someone within
> Micrsosoft is dealing with this problem.
>

"Bobj" wrote:

> Question- what is the correct syntax to be able to use Windows Catalog Search?
>
> Lets suppose I want to seach and retreive a list of all Windows XP updates
> that are for English language. The Seach syntax does not appear to honour
> "standard" practise of + or - so entering
> windows xp +english
> gives a whole bunch of other languages. Entering
> windows xp english
> gives the same result.
>
> How is an administrator supposed to retreive updates for a number of
> different XP PCs which are not net connected - without using WSUS??
> The 'personalise' and Administrator options appear to have disappeared from
> the Update site and the catalog site UI is unacceptable and certainly not
> what was available from Microsoft in the past. I hope someone within
> Micrsosoft is dealing with this problem.
>

"Bobj" wrote:

> Question- what is the correct syntax to be able to use Windows Catalog Search?
>
> Lets suppose I want to seach and retreive a list of all Windows XP updates
> that are for English language. The Seach syntax does not appear to honour
> "standard" practise of + or - so entering
> windows xp +english
> gives a whole bunch of other languages. Entering
> windows xp english
> gives the same result.
>
> How is an administrator supposed to retreive updates for a number of
> different XP PCs which are not net connected - without using WSUS??
> The 'personalise' and Administrator options appear to have disappeared from
> the Update site and the catalog site UI is unacceptable and certainly not
> what was available from Microsoft in the past. I hope someone within
> Micrsosoft is dealing with this problem.
>

The only way I've found to avoid the new "Microsoft Update Catalog" and its
lack of features is to use Windows 98 and click on the "Windows Update"
button on your start menu (or where ever it is). From that site, you can get
to the previous "Windows Update Catalog" and use all the nice administrator
features like downloading all fixes for any particular version of Windows
(back thru 98). No 95 nor NT. It would be nice if they had these last 2
also. I tried the resulting URLs from above on an XP box, but selecting an
OS (like Millenium or 98) returns 0 results. On the 98 box, I get all kinds
of results. My advice to Bill is, "dump Microsoft Update Catalog and go back
to the old Windows Update Catalog". It was much better. Microsoft Update
Catalog is practically useless.

"Bobj" wrote:

> Question- what is the correct syntax to be able to use Windows Catalog Search?
>
> Lets suppose I want to seach and retreive a list of all Windows XP updates
> that are for English language. The Seach syntax does not appear to honour
> "standard" practise of + or - so entering
> windows xp +english
> gives a whole bunch of other languages. Entering
> windows xp english
> gives the same result.
>
> How is an administrator supposed to retreive updates for a number of
> different XP PCs which are not net connected - without using WSUS??
> The 'personalise' and Administrator options appear to have disappeared from
> the Update site and the catalog site UI is unacceptable and certainly not
> what was available from Microsoft in the past. I hope someone within
> Micrsosoft is dealing with this problem.
>