Search For, Download & Install Windows Updates via Command Line

Morning all
Although we do have a WSUS server in our corporate environment, we sometimes
need to get updates installed to non-standard image machines en mass (read:
in bulk). I suppose we could create a script to add them to a specific WSUS
target group & run wuauclt /detectnow or /resetauthorization /detectnow, but
sometimes its not convenient to do, and having someone sit at the machine
clicking through the web page & rebooting the machines really isn't efficient.

So, what I'm looking for is a method for, at a minimum, downloading &
installing all SecurityUpdates, CriticalUpdates, UpdateRollups, Updates (or
whatever classifications exist) via the command line or by running a VBScript.

I'm aware of WUInstall, which seems to do that and then some, but I'm
surprised there isn't a Microsoft utility that does this, or some 'simple'
way to do this via VBScript, especially if we're installing everything and
not being picky! By my logic, if this utility can do it, there MUST BE some
other API's its hooking into to retrieve this information.

The closest things I could find is a post on here called "Scripting API:
Find High Priority updates only" which could be manipulated to accomplish
this, and this site:
http://www.activexperts.com/activmon...lient/#SSU.htm

Has anyone used a third party tool or developed their own thing to
accomplish this?

--
Julius G. Perkins, IV
Enterprise Systems
Workstation Architect

T�y the WSUS Newsgroup

<http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverwsus/threads>

On the web:
WSUS General
<http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/list/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.windows.server.up date_services>

In your newsreader:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsof...pdate_services
-=-

"JuliusPIV" wrote:

> Morning all
> Although we do have a WSUS server in our corporate environment, we sometimes
> need to get updates installed to non-standard image machines en mass (read:
> in bulk). I suppose we could create a script to add them to a specific WSUS
> target group & run wuauclt /detectnow or /resetauthorization /detectnow, but
> sometimes its not convenient to do, and having someone sit at the machine
> clicking through the web page & rebooting the machines really isn't efficient.
>
> So, what I'm looking for is a method for, at a minimum, downloading &
> installing all SecurityUpdates, CriticalUpdates, UpdateRollups, Updates (or
> whatever classifications exist) via the command line or by running a VBScript.
>
> I'm aware of WUInstall, which seems to do that and then some, but I'm
> surprised there isn't a Microsoft utility that does this, or some 'simple'
> way to do this via VBScript, especially if we're installing everything and
> not being picky! By my logic, if this utility can do it, there MUST BE some
> other API's its hooking into to retrieve this information.
>
> The closest things I could find is a post on here called "Scripting API:
> Find High Priority updates only" which could be manipulated to accomplish
> this, and this site:
> http://www.activexperts.com/activmon...lient/#SSU.htm
>
> Has anyone used a third party tool or developed their own thing to
> accomplish this?
>
> --
> Julius G. Perkins, IV
> Enterprise Systems
> Workstation Architect

Are the machines in question not getting updates from the WSUS server?

I've published a minimal script that installs all approved updates. If the
client isn't using WSUS, it should install all updates that are available from
WU/MU, although I've never used it this way.

<http://www.scms.waikato.ac.nz/~harry/wsusupdate.vbs>

http://www.scms.waikato.ac.nz/~harry/wsusupdate.vbs

Harry.


On 2010-02-25 3:21 a.m., JuliusPIV wrote:
> Morning all
> Although we do have a WSUS server in our corporate environment, we sometimes
> need to get updates installed to non-standard image machines en mass (read:
> in bulk). I suppose we could create a script to add them to a specific WSUS
> target group& run wuauclt /detectnow or /resetauthorization /detectnow, but
> sometimes its not convenient to do, and having someone sit at the machine
> clicking through the web page& rebooting the machines really isn't efficient.
>
> So, what I'm looking for is a method for, at a minimum, downloading&
> installing all SecurityUpdates, CriticalUpdates, UpdateRollups, Updates (or
> whatever classifications exist) via the command line or by running a VBScript.
>
> I'm aware of WUInstall, which seems to do that and then some, but I'm
> surprised there isn't a Microsoft utility that does this, or some 'simple'
> way to do this via VBScript, especially if we're installing everything and
> not being picky! By my logic, if this utility can do it, there MUST BE some
> other API's its hooking into to retrieve this information.
>
> The closest things I could find is a post on here called "Scripting API:
> Find High Priority updates only" which could be manipulated to accomplish
> this, and this site:
> http://www.activexperts.com/activmon...lient/#SSU.htm
>
> Has anyone used a third party tool or developed their own thing to
> accomplish this?
>


--
Harry Johnston
http://harryjohnston.wordpress.com

[hs2n]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JuliusPIV

Has anyone used a third party tool or developed their own thing to
accomplish this?

Yes, there is: try WuInstall (WuInstall), does quite exactly what you want via command line (utilizes the Windows Update API)