Windows update

A couple days ago I decided to make my box more secure by disabling any unneeded services. When manually checking for any windows updates today I find that I couldn’t, and I got an error saying that I need a service running. After googling it quickly I found out that even though in the Microsoft description of automatic updates it said I could disable it and update it manually, I found this to be untrue (at least to my knowledge). I could not get the windows update page to come up until I enabled automatic updates. I also found out that background intelligent transfer service also has to be running for the manual windows update. My question is there a bypass in which I will be able to update my windows manually and not have to have the automatic updates on (I know it doesn't hurt to have the automatic updates running, but I’m picky about having stuff running on my computer that isn't needed). Thanks for any help anyone is able to provide.

AFAIK, after installing XP SP2, you need the auto windows update service running to download from windows update.

You can manually download the individual updates and apply them if you don't want to use windows update.

You also need the Background Intelligent Transfer Service service to run.

SP2 based updates from require:

Background intelligent transfer service
Automatic updates


Both of those need to be enabled for the windows update to work. This is because WU uses the background intelligent transfer service to allow you to "resume" where you left off if you get disconnected during and update. And the Automatic updates is just a security check it runs before allowing you to use the website. They figure that if you have it on autoupdate when you run windows update, that you leave it running all the time for security reasons.