Even if you never connect your Xbox 360 console to the Internet it is possible to download and install the December 2011 software update on your console.
Although I do have to say this update is all about streaming content to your console so not having it connected to the Internet will limit much of the functionality that you could have with this update. However, the new Metro styled interface is a nice way to move around the console so you will probably appreciate having the latest and greatest software installed anyway. Plus if you have Kinect on your system this update also brings some improvements to speech recognition and noise cancellation.
Anyway – on to the update.
Here are the instructions from the Update your Xbox 360 console software page at Xbox.com for installing from either a USB Flash drive or CD/DVD drive.
Copy to a USB flash drive
If you cannot connect your Xbox 360 console to the Internet, you can copy the console update from your computer to a USB flash drive and then install it on the console.
Note The USB flash drive must use the FAT32 file system.
- Plug your USB flash drive into a USB port on your computer.
- Download the update file.
- Click Save to save the console update .zip file on your computer.
- Unzip the file. If you are using Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, double-click the .zip file to unzip it.
- Copy the contents of the .zip file to the root directory of your flash drive.
- Unplug the USB flash drive from your computer.
- Plug the flash drive into a USB port on your Xbox 360 console.
- Restart the console.
- When the console restarts, the installation program starts automatically. Select Yes when you are prompted to update the new console software.
Burn to a CD or DVD
You can update your Xbox 360 console software by downloading the update to your computer from Xbox.com, burning the update to a CD or DVD, and then installing the update on your console. Here’s how:
- On your computer, download the update file.
- Click Save to save the console update .zip file on your computer.
- Unzip the file. If you are using Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, double-click the .zip file to unzip it.
- If you are using Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, double-click the .zip file to unzip it.
- If you are using an earlier version of Windows, you need to use a special software program to unzip the file (for example, WinZip).
- Insert a blank, writeable CD or DVD into your computer.
- Copy the contents of the .zip file to the root directory on your CD or DVD, and choose to write (burn) the files to the disc.
- Once the files have been burned to disc, remove that disc from your computer and insert it into the disc drive on your Xbox 360 console.
- Restart the console.
- When the console restarts, the installation program starts automatically. Select Yes when you are prompted to update the new console software.
Enjoy your new Xbox 360 console software!
