#Powershell and Windows Update

So I have been using this for a while, but can’t remember if I shared it, so here it is.  I have two functions to get Installed Updated and Pending Updates.

They use winrm, so if it doesn’t work against a remote server you just need to run winrm qc

function Get-InstalledSoftwareUpdates {
  param($ComputerName=(HOSTNAME), $Credential)

  $code = {
    $Session = New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.Update.Session
    $Searcher = $Session.CreateUpdateSearcher()
    $HistoryCount = $Searcher.GetTotalHistoryCount()
    $Searcher.QueryHistory(1,$HistoryCount)
  } 

  Invoke-Command $code @psboundparameters | Select @{Expression={$ComputerName};Label="Machine"},  Date, Title, Description, ResultCode
}

-and-

function Get-PendingSoftwareUpdates {
  param($ComputerName=(HOSTNAME), $Credential)

  $code = {
    $Session = New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.Update.Session
    $Searcher = $Session.CreateUpdateSearcher()
    $HistoryCount = $Searcher.GetTotalHistoryCount()
    $SearchResult = $Searcher.Search("IsInstalled=0 and Type='Software'")
    For ($X = 0; $X -lt $SearchResult.Updates.Count; $X++){$SearchResult.Updates.Item($X)}
  } 

  Invoke-Command $code @psboundparameters | Select @{Expression={$ComputerName};Label="Machine"}, Title, Description, IsHidden, IsMandatory
}

You can run it against your windows desktop too, just paste in the functions and run them.  Prob best to put them in to a variable so:

$installed = Get-InstalledSoftwareUpdates
$pending = Get-PendingSoftwareUpdates

I also do some funky html output too, but I will let you play with that ;-)

Enjoy