{"id":1159,"date":"2016-12-14T18:23:30","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T22:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/?p=1159"},"modified":"2016-12-14T18:23:30","modified_gmt":"2016-12-14T22:23:30","slug":"using-powershell-to-manage-windows-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/14\/using-powershell-to-manage-windows-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"Using PowerShell to Manage Windows Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Using PowerShell to Manage Windows Updates:  PSWindowsUpdate<\/b><\/p>\n

Often we have to update computers that have not \u2013 for whatever reason been updated in a long time. AND we often have to create new deploy images using sysprep. What usually happens is that Windows update will hang at \u2018checking for updates\u2019 for a very long time and either error out or never complete. A secret I found to deploying Windows Updates when this happens or from within Audit Mode is an excellent PowerShell module created by Michal Gajda. This module, aptly called PSWindowsUpdate<\/b>, allows managing Windows Update on any computer running PowerShell 2.0 or higher. This module even enables Windows admins to check for and install updates on remote PCs and servers. PSWindowsUpdate is particularly handy for installing updates on Server Core machines that have no GUI, or in instances such as Sysprep\u2019s Audit Mode where the Windows Update GUI doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Get started by downloading the latest version of PSWindowsUpdate.zip<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Once downloaded, extract the contents of the zip file to C:\\Windows\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\Modules\\.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Extracting files from PSWindowsUpdate.zip.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Click Continue <\/b>if a UAC prompt appears.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 When the files have been extracted into the PowerShell Modules folder, open an elevated PowerShell prompt. Change PowerShell\u2019s Execution Policy to RemoteSigned<\/b>. The RemoteSigned Execution Policy allows PowerShell scripts downloaded from the Internet to run on a PC as long as they are signed by a trusted publisher.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Type Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned<\/b> and press Enter<\/b>. When prompted, confirm the change by pressing Y<\/b> and then Enter<\/b>.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Changing PowerShell\u2019s execution policy<\/i><\/p>\n

This completes the one-time configuration of the module! Now it\u2019s time to put PSWindowsUpdate to use!<\/p>\n

\u00b7 If running PowerShell v2.0, type Import-Module PSWindowsUpdate<\/b> and hit Enter<\/b>. This isn\u2019t necessary in PowerShell v3 and higher, but it doesn\u2019t hurt anything either. This step simply guarantees that the modules cmdlets will be available to the PowerShell v2.0 session.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Display a list of all the module\u2019s available cmdlets by typing Get-Command \u2013module PSWindowsUpdate<\/b> and hitting Enter<\/b>.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Using Get-Command -module PSWindowsUpdate.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Possibly the most important function for getting and installing updates is Get-WUInstall<\/b>. Help for each cmdlet is available, so to see full help for Get-WUInstall type Help Get-WUInstall \u2013full<\/b> and press Enter<\/b>.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Looking at help for Get-WUInstall.<\/i><\/p>\n

When applying updates, I prefer connecting to the Microsoft Update servers. Using these instead of the standard Windows Update servers allows installing updates to Office and other Microsoft products in addition to the normal Windows updates. Unfortunately, trying to connect to the Microsoft Update servers using the PSWindowsUpdate module from a fresh Windows installation will produce an error, as shown below.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 The reason for this error is because Windows is registered to use only the standard Windows Update servers by default. To use the Microsoft Update servers, the Microsoft Update Service must be registered on the computer. In the GUI, this is done by selecting the checkbox for Give me updates for other Microsoft products when I update Windows<\/b> from the Control Panel \u2013 Windows Update \u2013 Change Settings applet.<\/p>\n

\u00b7 In the PSWindowsUpdate module, the same process is completed by using the Add-WUServiceManager cmdlet with the ServiceID for the Microsoft Update service specified. Type Add-WUServiceManager -ServiceID 7971f918-a847-4430-9279-4a52d1efe18d<\/b> and press Enter<\/b>. When prompted, confirm registering the service by typing Y<\/b> and pressing Enter<\/b> one more time.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Registering the Microsoft Update servers.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00b7 List available updates from the Microsoft Update servers by typing Get-WUInstall \u2013MicrosoftUpdate \u2013ListOnly<\/b> and pressing Enter<\/b>. After a few moments, the system will return a list of the available updates for the current machine. No error this time!<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 The same results are produced by typing Get-WUList \u2013MicrosoftUpdate<\/b> and pressing Enter<\/b>.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Type Get-WUInstall \u2013MicrosoftUpdate<\/b> and press Enter<\/b> to go through the available updates, confirming installation of each one manually.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

PSWindowsUpdate and Parameter Support<\/b><\/p>\n

Another awesome feature of the PSWindowsUpdate module is its support of parameters. For example, using the \u2013AcceptAll<\/b>and the \u2013AutoReboot<\/b> parameters with the Get-WUInstall cmdlet changes the manual process into an automated one. Type Get-WUInstall \u2013MicrosoftUpdate \u2013AcceptAll \u2013AutoReboot<\/b> and press Enter<\/b>. The system will download and install all available updates and then automatically reboot if any of the updates require a reboot.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Retrieving updates and installing automatically.<\/i><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t want a particular update to be installed? No problem! Use Hide-WUUpdate<\/b>. Selection parameters such as \u2013Title<\/b> or \u2013KBArticleID<\/b> narrow in and hide specific updates. Feel free to use wildcards with these parameters. As an example, type Hide-WUUpdate \u2013Title \u201cBing*\u201d \u2013KBArticleID \u201cKB2673774\u201d \u2013MicrosoftUpdate \u2013Confirm:$false<\/b> and press Enter<\/b> to hide the Bing Bar 7.3 update.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hiding an unwanted update.<\/i><\/p>\n

Notice that I used the \u2013Confirm<\/b> parameter, along with the $false<\/b> switch, to automatically confirm hiding the selected update. In the future the update won\u2019t appear when listing available updates.<\/p>\n

Did you make a mistake and hide the wrong update? No problem! Hide-WUUpdate<\/b> can unhide an update by using the \u2013HideStatus parameter with the $false switch. To unhide the update hidden earlier, type Hide-WUUpdate \u2013Title \u201cBing*\u201d \u2013KBArticleID \u201cKB2673774\u201d \u2013MicrosoftUpdate \u2013HideStatus:$false \u2013Confirm:$false<\/b> then press Enter<\/b>. As before, I used the \u2013Confirm:$false parameter to keep everything streamlined.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Unhiding a previously hidden update.<\/i><\/p>\n

Once all the updates are complete make sure to open PowerShell (as Administrator) and set the Execution Policy back to \u2018restricted\u2019:<\/p>\n

Type Set-ExecutionPolicy Restricted<\/b> and press Enter. Then exit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Using PowerShell to Manage Windows Updates:  PSWindowsUpdate Often we have to update computers that have not \u2013 for whatever reason been updated in a long time. AND we often have to create new deploy images using sysprep. What usually happens is that Windows update will hang at \u2018checking for updates\u2019 for a very long time … Continue reading “Using PowerShell to Manage Windows Updates”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":587,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,13,186,256,15,218,257],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/587"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1160,"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159\/revisions\/1160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikemartinezonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}