PowerShell script to list the pending/missing Windows updates.

pending-updates.ps1

$UpdateSession = New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.Update.Session
$UpdateSearcher = $UpdateSession.CreateupdateSearcher()
$Updates = @($UpdateSearcher.Search("IsHidden=0 and IsInstalled=0").Updates)
$Updates | Select-Object Title

Perfect script. Just what I was looking for. Thanks!

Ditto! Thanks for this!

Hi, When I try to run below one why its not working, please help

I need only .NET available updates

$UpdateSession = New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.Update.Session
$UpdateSearcher = $UpdateSession.CreateupdateSearcher()
$Updates = @($UpdateSearcher.Search("IsHidden=0 and IsInstalled=0").Updates)
$Updates | Where-Object {$_.Title -contains '.NET'} | Select-Object Title

@durgaprasad9 try to use -like and stars, instead:

$Updates | where{ $_.title -like ".NET"} | select -ExpandProperty Title

Hi, how to get "Security Updates"only with Title

This is great! It seems to show available third party device updates though, e.g. HP printer driver updates. Is there a way to restrict to Windows Updates only?

Thank You

I am not a specialist on PS but I love the flexibility of this scripting tool. I've been researching on a similar script that I can modify slightly and provide the same end result for a list of servers we support. That list can be in a simple text file. How could I modify the above script to reflect that?

TIA

Gino

Thanks Philip !!

Great this script really helps.

Hello
This script shows optional updates as well
Is there any way to exclude optional updates?
I tried using $Updates = @($UpdateSearcher.Search("IsMandatory=0").Updates) but it throws OperationStopped: 0x80240032 error.
Thanks in advance.

@pratyakshm

You can find it like that:

$UpdateSession = New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.Update.Session
$UpdateSearcher = $UpdateSession.CreateupdateSearcher()
$Updates = @($UpdateSearcher.Search("IsHidden=0 and IsInstalled=0").Updates)
$Updates | Where-Object IsMandatory -eq $true | Select Title, IsMandatory

Thanks

Thanks @fliespl! ❤️

This appears to be actually skipping optional/recommended updates. I have update preview kb5011831 pending in WU on W10LTSC 21H2 19044.1348 but it is not in the list generated by UpdateSearcher. I've tried supplying empty criteria - still the same result. It does ignore the group policy for "skip drivers in WU" which is nice.

If u need to read from a software like Zabbix or just load in some api or application you can use this

https://github.com/guillerg86/zabbix/blob/main/scripts/windows/powershell/wu-get-mandatory-updates.ps1

Thanks, this was perfect!