Microsoft KB Archive/825824

= Why Product Update Packages May Include Additional Files That Are Not Fixed by That Update =

PSS ID Number: 825824

Article Last Modified on 11/24/2003

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Windows Server 2003, 64-Bit Datacenter Edition
 * Microsoft Windows Server 2003, 64-Bit Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition
 * Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
 * Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition Version 2003
 * Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition Version 2002
 * Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
 * Microsoft Windows XP Professional
 * Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
 * Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

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SUMMARY
A product update package (for example, a security patch, a critical update, an update rollup, or a hotfix) for Microsoft Windows may only include code changes to one file, such as. However, the product update may also include additional binary files, such as. This article discusses why the product update package may contain the additional files.



MORE INFORMATION
Additional files may be included in a product update package for either of the following reasons:  You must have the additional files to install the update. For example, Update.exe is the installer for Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP, and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 product update packages. As a result, Update.exe is included in product update packages for these products. The file or files that contain the fixes are dependent on the additional files. A dependency occurs if the code update in one file cannot function correctly without a code update in another file.

The code update to the dependent files may have been made to resolve a different bug. Consider the following scenario:

Microsoft releases. The development of  creates a dependency between   and another updated file,.

Next, Microsoft releases. The development of  requires only changes to. However, product updates are cumulative. Therefore, the updated copy of  that was developed for   is dependent on the updated version of   that was developed for.

If you have not installed  before you install , you would not have the updated version of. If the updated version of  is not distributed with , errors would occur.

Dependencies are transitive. If  is dependent on   and if   is dependent on , then   is dependent on. Therefore, any product update that includes an update to  requires the distribution of ,  , and  , even though only MainFix.dll was updated.



Product updates for different versions of the same Microsoft product may differ in the number of files that are distributed because there may be a different number of dependencies in each version.

