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My Windows has several software and they pop up at different time asking for updates and that's really annoying, because many demand restarting. I'd like to be able to update all the software just once per a specific time period, like one month.

Is it possible?

João Pimentel Ferreira
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  • Details are needed to be able to answer your question. What software are you referring to? Windows updates or 3rd party software, like java or adobe, etc? – CharlieRB Dec 09 '15 at 21:20
  • I meant all type of software that may run on Windows. But is there any meta software manager that manage how each program updates? Or that is impossible to achieve? I think Ubuntu has something similar. – João Pimentel Ferreira Dec 10 '15 at 17:08
  • I meant something like in Ubuntu – João Pimentel Ferreira Dec 17 '15 at 17:03
  • If you're looking for a specific piece of software this might be better served on [Software Recommendations](https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/) I'll try and make a Super User answer though. – timuzhti Dec 18 '15 at 03:22
  • The issue here is some 3rd party software may have a security vulnerability that should be fixed sooner rather than later and if your scheduled task is later, you may be vulnerable to that hole, so while it'd be nice in a perfect world to patch all at once, that's not really a security best practice if you want your machine(s) to be secure. I'd suggest setting them all to notify you once a security patch, etc. is available so you can get that software bug patched right away and just deal with the reboots as-needed as that's part of keeping your system secure and using different software. – Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style Dec 18 '15 at 23:06
  • It sounds like you're in a home-based environment too and you're only talking about ONE machine and not hundreds in a business environment where you're potentially push bug and security patches to a test group of machines and then have those UAT tested to confirm those patches don't break anything. If you do something otherwise and only update once a month and have some vulnerability and get hit and have to spend time restore or loose data, you'll be kicking yourself asking "why did I do that just because I had to reboot a little more often than I liked". Anything can happen so you never know. – Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style Dec 18 '15 at 23:12
  • Yes, it's a home environment. More important than that, I must say, is that the machine is really useful and practical to use. I want to spend more time using it than managing it. I have some SW that I use seldom, and I don't want to be warned every time I run it with the need for restarting the machine. For protecting critical data, I have already other specific SW and techniques. I said any time period, the max. in Ubuntu, I suppose is two weeks. – João Pimentel Ferreira Dec 19 '15 at 16:43
  • I have Linux, but I wanted also for Windows – João Pimentel Ferreira Dec 20 '15 at 14:19

7 Answers7

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You need a Package Manager like Chocolatey to install and upgrade all your software packages. Since it uses PowerShell commands, you can set a Scheduled Task in Windows to run monthly the upgrade command choco upgrade all -y.

Note that chocolatey only updates packages you installed via chocolatey itself, not the packages and softwares you installed yourself manually.

Chirag Bhatia - chirag64
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What you're looking for can be accomplished by a software manager. While there aren't yet any official managers for windows, there are plenty of third party options like Ninte. Their library is fairly small though, and generally only popular software is included. The only 3rd-party windows software managers that work with most software I know of are offered by chinese companies such as Qihoo 360 or Tencent, though I'm not entirely sure that even they still offer the software update and management portions of their product. You'll have to shop around a bit if you want to find one you like.

EDIT: I can now confirm that the software manager is still present on the products mentioned as of 2016-01-07, but only on the Chinese version.

timuzhti
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There isn't a single application that I know of which can manage to keep all software on a Windows machine updated. However, FileHippo App Manager in conjunction with SUMo seem to take care of most of the updates.

Both programs require user intervention for installing updates although FileHippo App Manager can at least download the software updates automatically. SUMo seems to be only good at telling you what's outdated rather than fetching the update for you. My antivirus program also seems to think it's adware.

There's also Avast Software Updater but it only checks for and installs updates for certain software programs that may compromise system security if left outdated (e.g. web browsers, Java Runtime, Adobe Flash Player, etc.). However, it has the advantage of performing automatic updates without user intervention.

Vinayak
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For the Windows OS Updates, you can configure or customize the update behavior and schedule by clicking Start, then search for Windows Update, and select/open Windows Update. Click Change Settings in the left pane. You may configure whether updates are installed automatically (or just downloaded), and you may also customize the schedule. For details, see here: Change how Windows installs or notifies you about updates

If you have other applications that automatically update, you'll have to explore customization options for each application (or contact the respective vendors).

CharlieRB
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DeltaHotel
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  • That's for Windows itself, not for other applications. It's really annoying having a popup or some warning for updating some SW every time I run it, since nowadays updates come really at a fast pace and many demand restarting. – João Pimentel Ferreira Dec 10 '15 at 17:10
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I wish there was a simple, elegant solution for this. Some of the best options I've found:

1) Ninite Pro with Scheduled Windows Updates (can be expensive);

2) System Center Configuration Manager (for Windows updates) combined with System Center Updates Publisher (for non-Windows updates), which can also be pretty expensive. Unfortunately, the massive variety of software publishers means there isn't a single, easy-to-use management tool for updating everything in one click.

Scott Marlin
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  • What is System Center Updates Publisher? Is any Microsoft SW? Is it very expensive? – João Pimentel Ferreira Dec 22 '15 at 16:00
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    SCCM is designed to centralize Windows/Microsoft updates (usually for many computers, such as in a large network/domain environment). SCUP is the "little brother" designed to manage 3rd party update packages similarly to SCCM/Windows updates. Looking for exact pricing now; will get back to you on that. An open-source alternative is "Puppet", but it is more command-line focused. https://www.scriptrock.com/articles/sccm-puppet – Scott Marlin Dec 22 '15 at 16:34
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    Looks like pricing is not inexpensive, especially if you're looking at managing a small number of computers. Pricing ranges from $1300 to $3000, depending on the server you install it on (which has it's own licensing prices, etc). Its really designed more for larger network environments. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/system-center-2012-r2/purchasing.aspx – Scott Marlin Dec 22 '15 at 16:42
  • In any case thank you so much for the replies but I was looking for something on the range of home single-machine applications. As I said I am a computer user not an administrator, and I'd like to use the computer as such. – João Pimentel Ferreira Dec 22 '15 at 20:54
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    Unfortunately, there isn't enough demand for a company to spend the hundreds/thousands of hours it would require to design something simple, yet powerful enough for this with small networks/individuals in mind. At this point, your best bet is to automate as much as you can by scheduling each individual program to automatically update regularly, and schedule Windows Update to do the same. Ideally, you could set them all to update on the same day, but you may run into problems if you try to get them all to update at the exact same time (Windows can only handle so many updates/installs at once..) – Scott Marlin Dec 23 '15 at 15:51
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Patch My PC is another good one like Nite https://patchmypc.net/download

Dennis
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  • Welcome to Super User. Answering software recommendation questions can be tricky, please see [How do I recommend software in an answer?](http://meta.superuser.com/questions/5329/how-do-i-recommend-software-in-my-answers) – Ben N Jan 08 '16 at 00:35
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I can recommend RuckZuck: https://ruckzuck.tools/

They have portable a GUI version as well as a command line client to script things, and even a OneGet provider, Configuration Manager and Intune integration. It will scan your PC and determine all software it has updates for. You can also install new software directly from the catalog.

The current repository can be viewed here and can be expanded by the community. https://ruckzuck.tools/Home/Repository

In the end though, it boils down to whether you trust this installation source, because it's probably fairly easy to introduce malware (I'm not sure how far new submissions or updates get vetted). But it sure is easy to use and gets the job done.

knipp
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