To get up and running with the Electronic Updates Windows client, follow these high-level steps, or see the step-by-step further down:

  1. Run the installer, entering the token when prompted.
  2. Electronic Updates will automatically start polling and downloading your data. Check the progress of the downloads using the Electronic Updates Status application.
  3. The configuration is done for you during the installation, but if you need to change any settings, you can do so from the Configuration Editor.

Electronic Updates requires the following:

Minimum
Operating system Microsoft Windows 7,Microsoft Windows Server 2012,Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2,Microsoft Windows 10
Software .NET Framework 4.6
Memory 512MB
Internet connection To download data updates, the machine running Electronic Updates requires:
  • Access to the internet through an always-on connection;
  • The ability to make an HTTPS (secure web) connection.
Disk space Minimal disk space is required for the Electronic Updates program files. The disk space required for the data files will vary according to the datasets you are downloading. The Data Guide for each dataset provides details of the disk space required. To obtain a copy of a Data Guide, contact your local technical support. You will need space for at least two copies of each dataset. See "Downloaded Data" in the Configuration Editor help for more information about deleting unused and expired data.

We recommend that you install your Experian applications before installing the Electronic Updates Windows client - if you add other Experian applications afterwards, you must update Electronic Updates to handle the applications' data updates. You can do this in the Configuration Editor.

If you're using additional datasets, such as United Kingdom With Names, you'll have to configure data mappings in your V6 Experian applications before you can use the additional datasets downloaded by Electronic Updates. You may prefer to install data manually to set up the default data mappings before configuring the Electronic Updates Windows client. For more information about additional datasets and data mappings, see your product documentation.

Electronic Updates accounts are available for all Experian clients who are licensed for use of a particular dataset. To obtain an Electronic Updates account, contact your local Technical support team. Once the account is set up, you will receive an email with the login details (username and password).

Along with the login details, the order confirmation email will contain a link to the Electronic Updates online portal.

Once logged in, the latest software installer and your customer token can be found under the 'Automatic Updates' tab:

Click either the 64-bit or 32-bit Download button to start the download.

Once the download has finished, you can run the installer. Note that in order to run the installer:

  • the user must have appropriate privileges to install software on the machine (Administrator Rights)
  1. Click Next on the Welcome screen:

  2. Select 'I accept the terms of the license agreement' and click Next:

  3. Enter your token and click Next:

  4. Select the folder where you would like 'Electronic Updates' installed into and click Next:

  5. Select the folder where you would like 'Electronic Updates' to store items into, and click Next:

  6. Select whether you would like a desktop shortcut created, and if you would to enable 'Electronic Updates' to be automatically updated and click Next:

  7. Select whether or not you would like to confidentially supply Experian with some basic operating system information, then click 'Next':

  8. Click 'Install' to begin installation.

  9. Click 'Finish' and Electronic Updates will automatically load.

A default configuration is done for you during the installation, where the most common configuration settings are already set up. If you wish to change these, follow the instructions below.

The Electronic Updates software consists of two interfaces, the Configuration Editor and the Status tool.

The Configuration Editor is used to set up your installation's configuration settings, whilst the Status tool is used to track any new datasets that are available to download and how your download is progressing.

Open the Configuration Editor

To open the 'Configuration Editor', navigate to the 'Experian Electronic Updates' folder in the Windows Start Menu and select the 'Configuration Editor' program. The following screen shows:

Set up download connections

Navigate to 'Download Connections' > 'Download Source', or click the Next button on the bottom right of the Welcome screen:

  1. Select the Enable Internet Download Connection checkbox.
  2. Enter your Electronic Updates token into the 'Experian Electronic Updates Token' section.
  3. Enter proxy details if a proxy is required to connect to the Internet. Note that Experian cannot provide your proxy details to you; refer to your System Administrator for more information.
  4. Click the Test Connection button to test your connection. Note that the 'Test Connection' button will not work unless your token details have been entered. If you are not able to successfully complete this check, contact your local Technical support team.
  5. Click Next.

Configure data download and installation

  1. Set 'Download mode' to 'All available data (Recommended)'.
  2. Set 'Data directory' to the location where you wish to store your dataset files.
  3. Select the Download locally first checkbox.
  4. Click Next.

Select data applications to update

  1. Click the Scan Local Apps button to automatically select all installed Experian applications, to update these with the latest datasets.
  2. Click Add New Entry if you wish to add Experian applications to update manually.
  3. Click each application to select it:
    1. Set 'Product configuration file type' to 'Auto (recommended)'.
    2. Important! Set 'Install mode' to either 'Full Install' (to download the latest datasets and update the application with these datasets) or 'Download only' (to only download the dataset files).
    3. Click Next.

Configure Email Notification

  1. Select the Enable email notifications? checkbox if you wish to receive email updates when new datasets are available.
  2. Fill in the SMTP Server address and email address that you want mail to be sent to/from. Note that Experian cannot provide your SMTP settings to you; refer to your System Administrator for more information.
  3. Click Send Test Email. Please note that the 'Send Test Email' button will not work unless all details have been entered. If you require further information, please select the 'Help' button at the top right of the window.

One common issue that users encounter is not starting the Electronic Updates service. If the service is stopped, then the automatic dataset updating aspect of Electronic Updates is effectively not running. The service needs to always be on/have started to continually check for newly available datasets in the background every three hours.

If an administrator account is required to allow internet connectivity:

  1. Select the Edit Service checkbox.
  2. Select the 'The specified account' option, and enter the administrator account credentials.
  3. Click the Apply button to apply these settings.
  4. Click the Start button to start the service.
  5. Click Next.

Rather than opening the Configuration Editor and going to Advanced > Windows Service to check if the service is running, a more robust method of achieving this would be to open the Services program services.msc from your computer and ensure that the Electronic Updates service 'Experian Electronic Updates' is set to Automatic or Automatic (Delayed Start).