Install and Manage Windows Updates with PowerShell (PSWindowsUpdate)

You can use the PSWindowsUpdate PowerShell module to manage Windows Updates from the command line. PSWindowsUpdate module is available for download from the PowerShell Gallery and allows administrators to scan, download, install, remove, or hide Windows updates on local or remote workstations and servers.

Installing the PSWindowsUpdate Module

You can install the PSWindowsUpdate module on Windows 10/11 and Windows Server 2022/2019/2016 from the online repository (PSGallery) using the command:

Install-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate -Force

Confirm adding repositories by pressing Y. Check that the update management module is installed on Windows:

Get-Package -Name PSWindowsUpdate

You can remotely install the PSWindowsUpdate module on other computers on the network. The following command will copy the module files to the specified computers (WinRM is used to access remote computers).

$Targets = "lon-fs02.woshub.loc", "lon-db01.woshub.loc"
Update-WUModule -ComputerName $Targets –Local

The default PowerShell script execution policy in Windows blocks the third-party cmdlets (including PSWindowsUpdate commands) from running,

Set-ExecutionPolicy –ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -force

Or, you can allow module commands to run only in the current PowerShell session:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process

Import the module into your PowerShell session:

Import-Module PSWindowsUpdate

List available cmdlets in the PSWindowsUpdate module

Get-Command -module PSWindowsUpdate

Check the current Windows Update client settings:

Get-WUSettings

ComputerName                                 : WKS5S2N39S2
WUServer                                     : http://MN-WSUS:8530
WUStatusServer                               : http://MN-WSUS:8530
AcceptTrustedPublisherCerts                  : 1
ElevateNonAdmins                             : 1
DoNotConnectToWindowsUpdateInternetLocations : 1
TargetGroupEnabled                           : 1
TargetGroup                                  : ServersProd
NoAutoUpdate                                 : 0
AUOptions                                    : 3 - Notify before installation
ScheduledInstallDay                          : 0 - Every Day
ScheduledInstallTime                         : 3
UseWUServer                                  : 1
AutoInstallMinorUpdates                      : 0
AlwaysAutoRebootAtScheduledTime              : 0
DetectionFrequencyEnabled                    : 1
DetectionFrequency                         : 4

In this example, the Windows Update client on the computer is configured by GPO to receive updates from the local WSUS update server.

Scan and Download Windows Updates with PowerShell

To scan your computer against an update server and get the updates it needs, run the command:

Get-WindowsUpdate

Or:

Get-WUList

The command lists the updates that need to be installed on your computer.

To check the source of Windows Update on your computer (is it the Windows Update servers on the Internet or is it the local WSUS), run the following command:

Get-WUServiceManager

In this example, the computer is configured to receive updates from the local WSUS server (Windows Server Update Service = True). In this case, you should see a list of updates that have been approved for your computer.

To scan your computer against Microsoft Update servers on the Internet (these servers contain updates for Office and other products in addition to Windows updates), run this command:

Get-WUlist -MicrosoftUpdate

You will get this warning:

Get-WUlist : Service Windows Update was not found on computer. Use Get-WUServiceManager to get registered service.

To allow scanning on Microsoft Update, run this command:

Add-WUServiceManager -ServiceID "7971f918-a847-4430-9279-4a52d1efe18d" -AddServiceFlag 7

If you want to remove specific products or specific KBs from the list of updates that your computer receives, you can exclude them by:

• Category (-NotCategory);
• Title (-NotCategory);
• Update number (-NotKBArticleID).

For example, to exclude driver updates, OneDrive, and a specific KB from the update list:

Get-WUlist -NotCategory "Drivers" -NotTitle "OneDrive" -NotKBArticleID KB4489873

You can download all available updates to your computer (update files are downloaded to the local update cache in the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download).

Get-WindowsUpdate -Download -AcceptAll

Windows will download any available updates (MSU and CAB files) from the update server to the local update directory, but it will not install them automatically.

Installing Windows Updates with PowerShell

To automatically download and install all available updates for your Windows device from Windows Update servers (instead of local WSUS), run the command:

Install-WindowsUpdate -MicrosoftUpdate -AcceptAll -AutoReboot

The AcceptAll option accepts the installation of all update packages, and AutoReboot allows Windows to automatically restart after the updates are installed.

You can also use the following options:

• IgnoreReboot – disable automatic computer reboot;
• ScheduleReboot – Schedule the exact time of the computer’s reboot.

You can write the update installation history to a log file (you can use it instead of the WindowsUpdate.log file).

Install-WindowsUpdate -AcceptAll -Install -AutoReboot | Out-File "c:\logs\$(get-date -f yyyy-MM-dd)-WindowsUpdate.log" -force

You can only install the specific updates by their KB numbers:

Get-WindowsUpdate -KBArticleID KB2267602, KB4533002 -Install

If you want to skip some updates during installation, run this command:

Install-WindowsUpdate -NotCategory "Drivers" -NotTitle OneDrive -NotKBArticleID KB4011670 -AcceptAll -IgnoreReboot

Check whether you need to restart your computer after installing the update (pending reboot):

Get-WURebootStatus | select RebootRequired, RebootScheduled

Check Windows Update History Using PowerShell

The Get-WUHistory cmdlet is used to get the list of updates that have previously been automatically or manually installed on your computer.

Check the date when the specific update was installed on the computer:

Get-WUHistory| Where-Object {$_.Title -match "KB4517389"} | Select-Object *|ft

Find out when your computer was last scanned and when the update was installed:

Get-WULastResults |select LastSearchSuccessDate, LastInstallationSuccessDate

Uninstalling Windows Updates with PowerShell

Use the Remove-WindowsUpdate cmdlet to uninstall Windows updates on a computer. Simply specify the KB number as the argument of the KBArticleID parameter:

Remove-WindowsUpdate -KBArticleID KB4489873 -NoRestart

How to Hide or Show Windows Updates Using PowerShell

You can hide certain updates to prevent the Windows Update service from installing them (most often you need to hide the driver updates). For example, to hide the KB4489873 and KB4489243 updates, run these commands:

$HideList = "KB4489873", "KB4489243"
Get-WindowsUpdate -KBArticleID $HideList –Hide

Or use an alias:

Hide-WindowsUpdate -KBArticleID $HideList -Verbose

Hidden updates will not appear in the list of available updates the next time you use the Get-WindowsUpdate command to check for updates.

List hidden updates:

Get-WindowsUpdate –IsHidden

Notice that the H (Hidden) attribute has appeared in the Status column for hidden updates.

To unhide updates on the computer:

Get-WindowsUpdate -KBArticleID $HideList -WithHidden -Hide:$false

or:

Show-WindowsUpdate -KBArticleID $HideList

Install Windows Updates on Remote Computers with PowerShell

Almost all PSWindowsUpdate cmdlets allow you to manage updates on remote computers. Use the –Computername parameter for that. WinRM must be enabled and configured (manually or via GPO) on remote computers. The PSWindowsUpdate module can be used to remotely manage Windows Updates both on computers in an AD domain and a workgroup (requires PowerShell Remoting configuration for workgroup environment).

To manage updates on remote computers, you must add hostnames to your WinRM trusted hosts list or configure PowerShell Remoting (WinRM) via HTTPS.

winrm set winrm/config/client '@{TrustedHosts="server1,server2,…"}'

Or with PowerShell:
Set-Item wsman:\localhost\client\TrustedHosts -Value server1 -Force

You can use the Invoke-Command command to enable the PSWindowsUpdate module on the remote computers and open the required ports in the Windows Defender firewall (Enable-WURemoting command):

$Targets = "lon-fs02", "lon-db01"
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Target -ScriptBlock {Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -force }
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Target -ScriptBlock {Import-Module PSWindowsUpdate; Enable-WURemoting}

Check the list of available updates on the remote computer:

Get-WUList –ComputerName server2

Download and install all available updates on several remote Windows hosts:

$ServerNames = "server1, server2, server3"
Invoke-WUJob -ComputerName $ServerNames -Script {ipmo PSWindowsUpdate; Install-WindowsUpdate -AcceptAll | Out-File C:\Windows\PSWindowsUpdate.log } -RunNow -Confirm:$false -Verbose -ErrorAction Ignore

The Invoke-WUJob cmdlet creates a Scheduler task on the remote computer that runs under a local SYSTEM account.

You can set the exact time you want Windows updates to be installed:

Invoke-WUJob -ComputerName $ServerNames -Script {ipmo PSWindowsUpdate; Install-WindowsUpdate –AcceptAll -AutoReboot | Out-File C:\Windows\PSWindowsUpdate.log } -Confirm:$false -TriggerDate (Get-Date -Hour 22 -Minute 0 -Second 0)

Check the status of the update installation task:

Get-WUJob -ComputerName $ServerNames

If the command returns an empty list, the update installation task is complete on all computers.

Check multiple remote hosts for the specific update:

"server1","server2" | Get-WUHistory| Where-Object {$_.Title -match "KB4011634"} | Select-Object *|ft

To get the latest update installation date on all domain computers, use the Get-ADComputer cmdlet (from the Active Directory for PowerShell module):

$Computers=Get-ADComputer -Filter {enabled -eq "true" -and OperatingSystem -Like '*Windows*' }
Foreach ($Computer in $Computers)
{
Get-WULastResults -ComputerName $Computer.Name|select ComputerName, LastSearchSuccessDate, LastInstallationSuccessDate
}

The PSWindowsUpdate PowerShell module provides a convenient way to download and install Windows updates from the command prompt. This is a useful option for installing updates on hosts without a GUI: Windows Server Core or Hyper-V Server.  This module is also essential if you need to install and track update installation on multiple Windows servers/workstations at the same time.