What does this module actually do?

This module won't work out of the box for me. I have exact error shown in http://drupal.org/node/333731. Perhaps problem can be fixed by properly specifying correct ftp path (which I don't know how to do, unfortunately).

But before figuring out how to fix, can you please explain what exactly this module does?

I'm sure it's obvious to others, but explanation of "PluginManager is designed to retrieving a list of all modules and themes available at drupal.org. It then allows the administrator to automatically retrieve and install the modules and themes they desire." isn't terribly precise.

If it worked, I could see for myself, but it doesn't, so a couple questions, please:

- In terms of what the module does, can you be more specific. I gather that once you specify what modules you want from an auto-generated checklist, it then does what? It automatically downloads and unpacks each module update into appropriate directory? And then it runs update.php, too, or not?

- For me, the module worked thru the checklist part, but then failed. But even the checklist wasn't complete. It had one module, but omitted a module with a critical security update. Does this module not do secutiry updates?

- How does this work in a multi-site install? I only need to download modules once, but I need to run update.php on each site and that's really the part that is a time consuming pain.

- Will this module work on localhost Windows machine without extra stuff (such as suggested by rfabbri in above thread)?

I run about 50 sites off single code base, each site having own folder at C/xampp/htdocs/drupal/sites/site1.com.... All add-on modules are at C/xampp/htdocs/drupal/sites/all/modules. I'm looking for ways to streamline the updating process which is starting to take a lot of time as number of sites grow.

Any advice, explanation appreciated. Thank you.