I'm running Windows 8 and 8.1 on two computers. They have the base operating system, Office and Visual Studio installed. There are no third party apps or Windows Store apps (installed by me).
I have Windows Update set to "Give me updates for other Microsoft products when I update Windows". I just finished a Check → Update → Reboot cycle (with a re-check) so that no updates are outstanding.
I opened Visual Studio, and lo and behold, there are outstanding updates:
I then checked the Metro screen, and there are more outstanding updates:
How do I force Windows Update to update all components, and not just some of them?
This situation is depressingly reminiscent of the 1990s, when update was so fractured. Its almost like a regression occurred in Windows Update.
The broken update mechanism is a disservice to product users and other internet users because we know the top two vectors for bad guys is user phishing and unpatched software. So the bad guy burrows in on me due to unpatched software, and then harasses internet users at large…
Best Answer
In the Store Settings you can select that all Store Apps are updated automatically. Set this option.
The message in Visual Studio comes from an Visual Studio extension. This is independent from Windows. In the VS2015 option you can also turn on automatic updates for Visual Studio extensions: