Can one apply Windows Updates without Loging on to Windows?

Dear sevenforum users,

The problem in question is not happening to myself but someone I want to help out.

When he tries to logon to his Windows 7 machine he gets a interactive logon failure error message and is unable to logon.

He tried save mode, save mode with network and save mode with command prompt and none worked. So he installed a second Windows 7 on another partition, made some research and found a hotfix he's sure will solve his problem.

Now we are at the one million question: How to apply updates without being able to log on to Windows?

Are there any means to accomplish this? Thanks in advance, Ricardo Bohner.