Windows Update

[kpwood]

Is there a way to utilize Powershell to check if there are available updates
on computers and report that info back to a central location?
--
Keith Wood
CompTIA A+, Network+, MCDST

[Bob Landau]

Not that I know of and even at that what would you do next? If there is a
possibility you'd be updating this machine why not just set up WSUS; it will
do that with minimal work on your part (other than verifying the update works
in your environment).

Here is a simple command to check what updates are on a machine but that
doesn't tell you what is missing. For that you'd really need to contact
Microsoft Update or <some company> update

Get-WMIObject -Class Win32_quickfixengineering -computerName sevenofnine |
Sort -property InstallDate -descending

This is too simple to be useful since you'll need to make sure the port
isn't block and your account has priviledge to access this machine remotely;
but it gives you an idea.

I still think you should check out WSUS all the issues I raised would not be
an issue

[tojo2000]

On Aug 14, 5:51 pm, Bob Landau <BobLan...@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:

Actually there is, there's a COM interface to Windows Update that I've
used to add very simple monitoring of just which servers in our
organization haven't yet applied all authorized updates.
Unfortunately I don't have access to it right now, but if you can't
find it and I don't update this thread in a couple of days feel free
to ping me at my email address. It was a pain getting the right
documentation the first time.

[Bob Landau]

I knew of the .NET class for WSUS but that still requires WSUS server. Its
under the namespace

Microsoft.UpdateServices.Administration

but if you do get the COM component which doesn't require WSUS at all let us
know.

[Robert Aldwinckle]

"Bob Landau" <BobL...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:8317455E-ED2C-406E...@microsoft.com...

> I knew of the .NET class for WSUS but that still requires WSUS server. Its
> under the namespace
>
> Microsoft.UpdateServices.Administration
>
> but if you do get the COM component which doesn't require WSUS at all let us
> know.

Supposedly MBSA has permitted scripting tricks with its XML for years...

Apparently there is a new(er) version of it available now. (MBSA 2.1)
Who knew? (Thanks for this bit of serendipity. <w>)

<title>Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 2.1 Frequently Asked Questions</title>
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/cc184922.aspx

(Microsoft search for
MBSA XML scripting
)

<quote>
Q: Can I still use the MBSA rollup scripts with MBSA?
Yes. The updated samples are available at the Microsoft Download Center.
The Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Connector for MBSA 2.1
is also a recommended download that may provide even more functionality
than what is provided by the script samples.
</quote>

HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
---

[Jan Egil Ring]

You may also want to check out the WSUS powerpack for PowerGUI:
http://powergui.org/entry.jspa?externalID=2061&categoryID=21

A few screenshots:
http://powergui.org/servlet/KbServlet/download/2061-102-2982/Screenshot.PNG
http://powergui.org/servlet/KbServlet/download/2061-102-2983/Screenshotb.PNG

--
Jan Egil Ring
---------------------
http://janegilring.wordpress.com
http://powershellug.ning.com

"Robert Aldwinckle" <rob...@techemail.com> wrote in message
news:ehgePTcH...@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

[Marco Shaw [MVP]]

James O'Neill plays with Windows Update here:

http://blogs.technet.com/jamesone/archive/2009/01/27/managing-windows-update-with-powershell.aspx

It seems to just hang on Windows Server 2008 R2 RC.

I'm playing with it now. From there, you'd need to determine how to report
things back to your central location...

Marco

"kpwood" <kpw...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:79A71AF7-7B50-4DC0...@microsoft.com...

[Marco Shaw [MVP]]

It does work. It just seemed slow. You'd have to pick apart that script
from James though to make sure you use just the pieces you need to have it
run to only report back available updates, but not have it start actually
installing them, unless/when you need that functionality too.

Marco

"Marco Shaw [MVP]" <marco.shaw@NO_SPAMgmail.com> wrote in message
news:#2D6b2gH...@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...