How do I get the Update History from Windows Update in PowerShell?

Question

Can someone give me an example of how to get the Update History from Windows Update in PowerShell?

I found the API documentation here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb394842(v=vs.85).aspx

But, there is very little on how to call it from PowerShell.

Answer 1

Here is a sample of how to query the WUA history from PowerShell. First, I'll define a couple of functions to help.

# Convert Wua History ResultCode to a Name
# 0, and 5 are not used for history
# See https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa387095(v=vs.85).aspx
function Convert-WuaResultCodeToName
{
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
        [int] $ResultCode
    )

    $Result = $ResultCode
    switch($ResultCode)
    {
      2 {
        $Result = "Succeeded"
      }
      3 {
        $Result = "Succeeded With Errors"
      }
      4 {
        $Result = "Failed"
      }
    }

    return $Result
}

function Get-WuaHistory
{

  # Get a WUA Session
  $session = (New-Object -ComObject 'Microsoft.Update.Session')

  # Query the latest 1000 History starting with the first recordp     
  $history = $session.QueryHistory("",0,1000) | ForEach-Object {
     $Result = Convert-WuaResultCodeToName -ResultCode $_.ResultCode

     # Make the properties hidden in com properties visible.
     $_ | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $Result -Name Result
     $Product = $_.Categories | Where-Object {$_.Type -eq 'Product'} | Select-Object -First 1 -ExpandProperty Name
     $_ | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $_.UpdateIdentity.UpdateId -Name UpdateId
     $_ | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $_.UpdateIdentity.RevisionNumber -Name RevisionNumber
     $_ | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Value $Product -Name Product -PassThru

     Write-Output $_
  } 

  #Remove null records and only return the fields we want
  $history | 
      Where-Object {![String]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($_.title)} | 
          Select-Object Result, Date, Title, SupportUrl, Product, UpdateId, RevisionNumber
}  

After these functions are defined, we can get the updates

# Get all the update History, formatted as a table
Get-WuaHistory | Format-Table