Zune 4.0 – Installing Zune software without checking for windows updates or without an internet connection

Contributor Icon Contributed by seamonkey420 Date Icon November 24, 2009  
Tag Icon Tagged: Zune

Microsoft’s Zune software is a very good media player and the latest 4.0 update really adds some nice features.  However, as with most Microsoft products, the Zune installer will check to see if your Windows Updates are enabled and then continue installing.  This check prevents corporate or offline users the ability to install the new Zune 4.0 software.

Most corporate networks have policies setup to PREVENT Windows Updates from running since updates can break corporate/enterprise setups.

This recipe will explain how to install the Zune 4.0 software without checking for Windows Updates or for those without an internet connection.  This does require having either Winzip (not free, get trial here) or 7z (free, get here) installed.

1. Download the Zune 4.0 software from Microsoft’s Zune Page to a folder on your desktop.

2. Once the .exe file is download, right-click on the file and go to either the Winzip or 7zip context menu and then choose Extract to “zunesetuppkg-x86\”

3. Once extracted, go to that new folder, zunesetuppkg-x86 and then go into the packages folder.

2. In here, you will see 3 .msi files; Zune-es.msi , Zune-fr.msi, and Zune-x86.msi.

3. Run the Zune-x86.msi and this will start the Zune 4.0 installer.  By running the .msi directly, it should not check to see if windows updates are enabled and should not check for any updates either (allowing for corp/enterprise users to install the software and also for those w/o an internet connection to install it too).

4. Once it completes, go to your Start Menu or Desktop and launch the new Zune 4.0 software and experience music the new Zune way!

–Windows 7 Users–
This will work in Win7 also, however you will need to do one additional step to get it to work.

During step 3. instead of running the zune-x86.msi directly, you will need to Right-Click the file and choose “Troubleshoot compatibility”. It will run a test, then click on the Start the Program and it should then allow us to install the Zune 4.0 software.

This recipe has been tested on Windows XP and Windows 7.

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  • Thanks for the tip, I'll be sure to try this out @ home

    My cousin's been dying to add music to his Zune :D
  • This worked perfectly on my XP Desktop

    Thank you so much
  • excellent! glad it to hear it worked for you too!
  • zooxoocooolalo
    thans man i hope this works,ill try it on my lap
  • Foxone
    could not get mine to install it starts up like its going to and then just stops. any ideas?
  • what operating system are you using?
  • Travis_Riley
    well i had 4.0. my 30gb (firstgen "brick" zune) would never show up for me to add/remove things to it. thus im stuck with very old crap and would like to change. i downloaded 3.2 off a microsoft site to see if it would work, well it would read my zune for a moment. it would show up then "READ ERROR" woul show up. cany you (or anyone) help
  • Joslezio85
    so i tried this and it didn't work. After i click on the zune-x86 in the packages it says preparing to install and than it pops up with this message.
    DriverCA 01:57:04.999: Operation
    'InstallSoftwareDriver' has finished with result
    0x8007f02a

    and than it like goes backwards and disappears. Any ideas?
  • Vandoo
    Mine did the same thing
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