If you are a Windows 10 user, you might be aware that Microsoft releases two types of updates known as Feature Updates and Cumulative Updates. The feature updates are released bi-yearly and are mainly for introducing new features or improving the current ones. On the other hand, Microsoft regularly pushes the Windows 10 cumulative updates for fixing bugs, device maintenance, and introducing the latest security patches.
Though every Windows 10 based device automatically gets the cumulative updates every second Tuesday of the month, due to some reasons, your device might not be getting updates for a long time. It might be because you have disabled the Windows 10 updates or other technical reasons.
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Whatever the reasons, if your computer is not getting the regular cumulative updates, it is becoming vulnerable to the latest cyber attacks as the security patches become outdated. In addition to that, the system might also become buggy and slow unresponsive because of no new patches to fix the previous update’s bugs.
If your system is unable to receive the cumulative updates automatically, it is advised to try manual ways to do that.
In this post, we would learn to download Windows 10 updates manually through Microsoft Update Catalog.
Check the Last Windows 10 Update Date
Before moving ahead to manually download Windows 10 updates, it is better to check when was the last time your device was updated and on which Windows 10 build version your device is currently running on. It will give you the idea, whether you require to update it immediately or not. For that, follow these steps:
- Launch the Windows 10 search box and type Windows PowerShell.
- Right-click on it and choose Run as administrator.
- Type or copy/paste this command on the command line window: gwmi win32_quickfixengineering |sort installedon -desc
- Check the date and time when was the last time your PC was updated.
- If the Windows update date is pretty long ago, you could proceed to download the latest Windows 10 update manually.
Find the Windows 10 Latest Update
The next thing you need to know is which is the latest Windows 10 cumulative update. To download the update, you can navigate to the Microsoft Update Catalog. It contains every major and minor Windows 10 update for download manually. Basically, it is meant for developers and testers, but any regular user can also visit the site and download the required update.
Unfortunately, you can only search for the updates on the Microsoft Update Catalog website if you know its Knowledge Base (KB) reference number. It becomes difficult to search for the newest update if you don’t know the latest KB number. However, with a simple search on the Microsoft Update Catalog website, you might get the updates to download.
To search for the latest KB reference number updates, type this on the search box: windows 10 version name architecture current month/%/current year. For example, in my case, it is – windows 10 20H2 x64 7/%/2021. (I took 7 as the month because, at the time of writing this article, 2nd Tuesday of August month was yet to arrive)
You will see all the Windows 10 updates of July month.
Manually Download the Windows 10 Updates through Microsoft Update Catalog
After knowing the KB number of the latest Windows 10 update, you can easily download and install it manually.
From the search result, choose the Windows 10 update with the latest KB reference number to download. Click on the Download button.
A new window will be launched. Right-click on the MSU file and select Save link as.
Your browser might block the file. However, the file is safe, and from the options, you can select Keep to download the file.
The file will start downloading and take some time, depending on its size and your internet speed.
Manually Install the Windows 10 Cumulative Update
After the MSU file of Windows 10 Cumulative Update is downloaded, you can install it simply by double-clicking on it. However, if you want that your system should not automatically be restarted after the installation, you can configure that preference using the command prompt.
- On the Windows Search bar, type Command Prompt, right-click on its icon and select Run as Administrator.
- Type the following command and hit enter: wusa C:\PATH-TO-UPDATE\NAME-OF-UPDATE.msu /quiet /norestart. Look at this example:
Summing Up
Manually downloading the Windows 10 update is pretty straightforward. The only trick is to find the latest and suitable KB version. Apart from Windows 10 updates, you can also use Microsoft Update Catalog for the latest driver updates and Surface updates. Suppose the message “The update is not applicable to your computer” appears when installing the MSU update. In that case, you have likely downloaded an update package for a different Windows version/build, or the update has already been installed. After the update, if your device has become unstable or buggy, you can uninstall the Windows updates and restore to the previous version.
Peter is an Electrical Engineer whose primary interest is tinkering with his computer. He is passionate about Windows 10 Platform and enjoys writing tips and tutorials about it.
