View updates before they install?

[killingtime]

Hello,

New to WSUSOU. I've read the online guide and watched the youtube video and searched the forum but have three questions;

1. Is it possible to view a list of the updates that WSUSOU will attempt to install before it installs them on a particular computer....so that an exception list can be made in .\client\exclude\custom\ExcludeList.txt
Windows update has similar functionality I believe. You're prompted with a list of updates that you can check or uncheck before installation.

2. Assuming that generation of such a list is possible, can other information about each update be shown (release date, title etc) or would I have to go looking that information up on M$ website?

3. How does the current version of WSUSOU handle the roll-up hotfix for Win7 (kb3125574) aka Win7SP2? Will it try and install only security updates after this roll-up or ....? This is why I'm asking about 1 and 2 above.

Many Thanks,

[aker]

1) That's not the intention of wsusou. It was created to update multiple computers without having to take a look at it. It is possible to modify wsusou to pause before installing, but you'd have to re-mod it everytime you update it / it updates itself.

2) Requires a more code running in the WUA; that could slow down the update even more.

3) MS did not add "Win 7 SP2" to the catalog wsusou uses. So it won't be installed ATM.

[killingtime]

Hello aker, thanks for the reply.

3) MS did not add "Win 7 SP2" to the catalog wsusou uses. So it won't be installed ATM.

Do you know what is installed then in place of it? Does WSUSOU have a go at installing security updates that are already covered by kb3125574? I ask because this roll-up is already on a number of computers and I would like to avoid specific updates.

1) That's not the intention of wsusou. It was created to update multiple computers without having to take a look at it.

If you don't mind me asking, what was the rationale for this? I can't see any downside. You can always ignore the list that's shown if you're not interested, but it's very useful if you want to avoid bloatware and spyware that Microsoft have classified as a security update. If it's really not possible to see the list before hand, is it possible to delete parts of what's been downloaded so WSUSOU just skips certain updates? Populating ExcludeList.txt would be almost impossible if you don't know in the first instance whether certain updates are going to be installed. You'd have to account for every possible update that might be installed (that you don't want) and exclude it just in case. The list would be huge.

Another way to go about this would be to request that WSUSOU only install updates released after a specific date. That would provide a better starting point. The number of excludes post-kb3125574 is manageable. Not sure if this is possible (dependency chains might be broken...).

Thanks,

[boco]

Do you know what is installed then in place of it? Does WSUSOU have a go at installing security updates that are already covered by kb3125574? I ask because this roll-up is already on a number of computers and I would like to avoid specific updates.

WSUSOU asks WU for the patch level of the target system. Since the Convenience Rollup (that unfortunately already comes with extra Telemetry/PUS and is therefore unsuited for those trying to avoid such updates) supersedes the patches it replaces, those patches won't be installed on such a system. Systems without the Rollup are updates the normal way, as the distinct patches are still offered.