Managing Windows updates with PowerShell
Thursday, January 6, 2022
11:45 PM
How to Automate Windows Updates Using PowerShell: Short Overview
Patch management is a crucial aspect of IT infrastructure administration, just as Windows Workstation backup. With the right patch management solution, you can enhance your system by testing or installing the latest software updates and patches. Patches are regarded as temporary fixes for existing issues between full-scale software releases. If patch management is effectively performed, you can promptly address vulnerabilities of your system and mitigate any potential threats.
Windows offers its own patch management solution – Windows Update. However, many IT administrators still find the patch management process too complex and time-consuming. Moreover, system updates can affect your production workflow as they often start automatically during business hours. With PowerShell cmdlets, you can automate Windows updates, saving you effort and time.
Today’s blog post describes how you can use PowerShell to install Windows updates and includes a list of useful PowerShell commands to automate the patch management process. Patching can reduce the risk of bugs or vulnerabilities affecting your system. However, you should use a comprehensive data protection solution to ensure the full-scale security of your production workloads. NAKIVO Backup & Replication is an affordable and reliable solution which can protect your data across various platforms (physical, virtual, or cloud).
What Is PSWindowsUpdate?
To make the Windows patch management process smooth and easy, you can use the PSWindowsUpdate module developed by Michal Gajda. This module is publicly available and can be downloaded for free from the PowerShell Gallery. The main requirement is that a computer needs to run Windows OS versions starting from Vista or Windows Server 2008. Also, you need to have PowerShell 2.0 or later.
With PSWindowsUpdate, you can identify if any Windows updates are available for your computer. Moreover, this module allows you to centrally manage Windows updates across various Windows servers and workstations. This way, you can remotely control which updates are installed, removed, or hidden.
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How to Automate Windows Updates with PowerShell
Below, we will outline the PSWindowsUpdate configuration process, including how to download and install the module, as well as how to check for the commands which can help you automate Windows updates.
How to install PSWindowsUpdate
To effectively automate Windows patch management, you first need to install the PSWindowsUpdate module on your computer. For this purpose, open an elevated PowerShell prompt and enter the following command:
Install-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate
After running this command, you will be asked whether you want to install the specified module from PSGallery. Select Yes if you wish to continue and accept all changes.
Once you have installed the module, you need to ensure that you can remotely access other computers. This way, you should be able to install Windows updates on remote computers, allowing you to spend minimal time and effort. For the PSWindowsUpdate module to work with remote machines, you need to save the module to your computer and share it over a network. In case other servers are able to import and deploy this module, you can set up automated Windows patch management. To this end, you should run the following cmdlet:
Save-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate -Path
Here, you need to define the –Path parameter by specifying where you want the PSWindowsUpdate module to be stored.
How to use PSWindowsUpdate
For the next step, you will learn how to use this module in order to automate Windows updates with PowerShell cmdlets. This is a great advantage for IT administrators who need to perform the patch management process on Server Core machines with no GUI. With the use of these cmdlets, you can minimize management complexity and make the process easier and less error-prone.
To get a full list of available Windows updates, run the following PowerShell command:
Get-WindowsUpdate
You should get the output seen below on your screen:
With this information, you will know for sure which software or application needs to be updated. After that, you can install all the updates by entering the command below. Moreover, by adding the –AutoReboot parameter, you can ensure that the system will automatically restart once the update is installed.
Get-WUInstall -AcceptAll –AutoReboot
If you would not like a reboot to start (so as not to interrupt the production workflow), you can run the following cmdlet:
Get-WUInstall -AcceptAll –IgnoreReboot
On the screen, you can see the progress of the patch management process, as well as the full list of updates and their current status.