Hello, Since Windows XP SP1, we no longer need qchain.exe because its functionality has been built-in to the updates. You may consider using WUSA.exe with proper switches to install multiple .msu updates without interaction. Check this: Description of the Windows Update Stand-alone Installer (Wusa.exe) and of.msu files in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and in Windows Server 2008 R2 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934307 To install .EXE updates, use the /X switch to extract it. For example: ACB.EXE /X: D:\ABC. This extracts the exe to D:\ABC folder Thanks ZHANG

I’ve been using qchain for the longest time to update some of my systems that are air gapped. The problem is these newer .msu file extensions don’t work with qchain. Has Microsoft developed a successor to this executable? If not is there an alternative lightweight solution? J. Swann – Information Security Engineer

Hi, qchain was retired years ago, the necessary logic was incorporated into the update.exe engine, and its successors, and the relevant APIs such as MoveFileEx etc. what's your scenario (where you think you need it)?Don

Thanks. I will take the information you have provided and attempt to update my scripts. Hopefully all works well. I'll let you all know how it goes.J. Swann Information Security Engineer

I just need to chain the patches together to run one after another without user interaction. I'd like to be able to do a mixture of .exe and .msu since those are the formats MS releases. J. Swann Information Security Engineer

Hello, Since Windows XP SP1, we no longer need qchain.exe because its functionality has been built-in to the updates. You may consider using WUSA.exe with proper switches to install multiple .msu updates without interaction. Check this: Description of the Windows Update Stand-alone Installer (Wusa.exe) and of.msu files in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and in Windows Server 2008 R2 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934307 To install .EXE updates, use the /X switch to extract it. For example: ACB.EXE /X: D:\ABC. This extracts the exe to D:\ABC folder Thanks ZHANG

Ok, as per http://support.microsoft.com/kb/296861 qchain is not really needed if you are running a supported OS/product. And, qchain doesn't chain updates, it just attempted to ensure that queued operations from multiple hotfixes were applied sucessfully. You can chain updates using any scripting method you like, each time suppressing the restart with the relevant parameters for the update. The parameters vary, depending on the product you are updating and the format of the updater. MS Security Bulletins are a good source of this information. Office2003 updates use parameters like /q:a /r:n Office2007 updates use parameters like /quiet /norestart WUSA (on Win7 & SRV08R2) uses parameters like /quiet /norestart if you are collecting the result codes from each, then you could determine if a restart is needed, or, force a restart as the last action in your script.Don