v9.0 - "Copy updates for selected products into directory"

[vanguardlh]

Just downloaded and ran version 9 of WSUSoffline. I use the following setup under Windows 7:

Program folder: C:\WSUS\wsusoffline
Updates folder: C:\WSUS\wsusupdates

I do NOT want the updates stored in subfolders under the program folder. I want the updates to be in their own folder hierarchy. So I enabled the following option and set it to the value shown:

Enable: "Copy updates for selected products into directory"
Directory: C:\WSUS\wsusupdates

Selecting this path in the options will create the wsusupdates folder. However, when I run WSUSoffline, it continues to store the updates under the wsusoffline program folder under the client subfolder. Instead of having updates stored under:

C:\WSUS\wsusupdates

they are instead stored under:

C:\WSUS\wsusoffline\client

This is the same config used for version 8.9. So I was expecting the updates to show up under the wsusupdates folder. After WSUSoffline was done, I couldn't find the updates. Nothing had been added into the specified wsusupdates folder. Instead if found them back under the wsusoffline\client folder (where I do NOT want them mixed in under the program's folder). Now I have to wonder what other options are not honored in the new 9.0 version released March 5, 2014.

I will have to revert to version 8.9 until a fix for 9.0 has it honor the "Copy updates for selected products into directory" option.

[Denniss]

Updates are always stored in the client subfolder, they have to be there for proper functionality of the program if you want to update the repository after a patchday. The copy option is not intended for download but for easy copy to other mediums like USB stick.

[vanguardlh]

So why was the folder specified by the "Copy updates ..." option completely empty after WSUSoffline was done? There were no errors in the log.

If WSUSoffline wants to store the updates under its own program folder, wouldn't that run afoul of UAC in Windows? As I recall, UAC in Windows doesn't like programs to be saving data files under the C:\Program Files path. This is why, for example, I had to install 40tude Dialog, my newsreader, under a different path. Luckily, I never put WSUSoffline under that path. Personally I see no reason why a program must store data files under its own installation path. Config files maybe (if not instead under %userprofile%) but not data files. A data store does not have to be under the program's installation path.

Anyway, "Copy updates ..." should copy but it didn't. The destination folder specified was empty after WSUSoffline was done. Regardless of what "it is for" doesn't obviate that this option is supposed to do a copy (or, at least, a store) operation of the updates under the specified path.

It seems that sometimes playing around with options inside of WSUSoffline results in the program can get it out of sync on what it actually uses when ran versus what is shown in the window. I deleted the program folder and unzipped WSUSoffline to the same program folder again and this time the copy option was honored; however, this time I selected each option once and only once. Once I changed an option, I didn't change it again.

In 8.9, the copies went into the specified folder (despite that I do not want the program to pollute its own folder with the updates but it does). With the "Copy updates ..." option enabled, what was under the <progpath>\client subfolder got copied to the specified folder. This option wasn't honored the first time I ran WSUSoffline, nor the 2nd, or 3rd. I deleted the <progpath>, unzipped WSUSoffline again, and put it under <progpath>, again enabled the "Copy updates ..." option and that time it honored that option. The first instance of WSUSoffline did not honor the option. The second instance (with only one-time changes to any option) did work. Go figure.

[boco]

If WSUSoffline wants to store the updates under its own program folder, wouldn't that run afoul of UAC in Windows? As I recall, UAC in Windows doesn't like programs to be saving data files under the C:\Program Files path.

Nothing is 'polluted'. WSUSOU is portable software and not intended to go into a protected directory. The updates have to be under its own ./client directory since it acts as a repository database which is filtered from to create media/copy to USB.

Note that creating ISOs follows the same scheme - they are created under ./iso

[vanguardlh]

So, back to the original topic, is there a reason when the user enters a non-blank and valid path for the directory in the "Copy updates for selected products into directory" that nothing shows up there when WSUSoffline is done? The path was to a folder on the hard disk with no special permissions (i.e., any account can write there) and was not on recordable media (i.e., CD/DVD-RW). I searched for "error" in its log file but found nothing germane to the copy operation.