Keeping your Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Installation images fully patched

If you need to frequently build machines from scratch with an OS such as Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 (especially when building test and development virtual machines), it is worthwhile to be able to use fully patched installation media (most often in the form of ISO images).

Therefore, rather than spending an inordinate amount of time downloading and installing the updates from Windows Update, I simply periodically patch my base installation media so that OSes are patched to the latest current set of Microsoft updates.

The tools that help me accomplish this are the following:

1. Windows Updates Downloader  http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com/
2. RT 7 Lite (for Windows 7)  http://www.rt7lite.com/rt-se7en-lite.html
3. RT Server Customizer (for Windows Server 2008 R2)  http://2kr2.rt7lite.com/

These are the steps that I follow to get my fully patched installation media:

1. Get the latest Windows 7 Update Lists (http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com/UpdateLists.aspx) from the Windows Updates Downloader site (these work for both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2) 
2. Download all of the relevant patches to meet my needs 
3. Using the Rockers Team tools, use the Integrate feature to begin selecting all of my various hotfixes
4. Wait while all of the hotfixes are integrated into the respective installation media
5. After all of the hotfixes have been successfully integrated, use the Rockers Team tool to re-create my ISO installation media
6. Now when I build my virtual machines, I mount my newly updated ISO images and lo and behold I have a completely patched Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 virtual machine!