One of the biggest pain points of using custom virtual machine image is that once you create a new VM using the image, you have to update the OS and rest of the software to bring the patches to latest state, since the image was created.
I know that "Windows Azure refreshes the Windows Azure platform supplied base images periodically. But Windows Azure does not force updates to the operating system disks already deployed by customers."
PROBLEM: This is disappointing, to say the least. Custom virtual images are very important when I want to quickly create a VM with specific applications as well as web server configuration. Else I will have to invest a significant amount of effort in creating scripts that can be applied on VMs created using Azure supplied base images. This effort is huge for us.
QUESTION: It would be great to understand if anyone knows how to force OS updates to custom virtual images. Are there any softwares that allow patching a specific VHD/ VHDs? Has Azure come up with solutions for this recently (it's possible that my knowledge is dated)? Even if there is an extra charge for such services/ software/ tools, we are very much willing to look at it.