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Generate List of Missing Updates

PostPosted: 09.08.2019, 16:44
by josephbutler
How can I run WSUS offline against my system without actually installing anything?

Basically, I need to generate a list of what would be installed/updated without actually installing or updating anything...kind of like a dry run.

Any way to do this?

The purpose is to identify everything that will be installed/updated before I run the program to install.

Re: Generate List of Missing Updates

PostPosted: 09.08.2019, 17:38
by Dalai
I remember that a very similar question has ben asked in the past, but unfortunately I haven't been able to find the according thread. So, I'm going to start from scratch.

WSUS Offline itself isn't meant to do such a thing, when using its regular function out of the box anyway. However, there are parts in WSUS Offline that can help achieve what you want. Namely it's wsusoffline\client\cmd\ListMissingUpdateIds.vbs which is used to determine missing updates on the clients before installing them. You can also use my HideUpdates script :arrow: viewtopic.php?p=20852#p20852 which does something similar. In any case, both scripts contain code that can help writing your own script if you so desire. In case you want to use my HideUpdates but don't understand German, please feel free to ask anything that's unclear (the explanations in HideUpdates.ini and output of HideUpdates.au3 are in German only).

Regards
Dalai

Re: Generate List of Missing Updates

PostPosted: 09.08.2019, 21:35
by aker
Copy .\client\wsus\wsusscn2.cab to your temporary folder and run .\client\cmd\ListMissingUpdateids.vbs.
In your temporary folder will be a file "MissingUpdateIds.txt" after the script finished.

Re: Generate List of Missing Updates

PostPosted: 10.08.2019, 19:38
by josephbutler
I have tried this and the VBS script runs, but no .txt file is created in the temp directory.

Re: Generate List of Missing Updates

PostPosted: 10.08.2019, 20:20
by Dalai
Did you copy the catalog file to %TEMP% directory? Is the Windows Update service enabled on your system? What (error) message do you get when you run
Code: Select all
cscript.exe //nologo path\to\wsusoffline\client\cmd\ListMissingUpdateIds.vbs


Regards
Dalai

Re: Generate List of Missing Updates

PostPosted: 11.08.2019, 00:56
by aker
How long did you wait?
The script takes a long time to run (if everything is up to date >= 1-2 minutes).
Please check using the Task-Manager, if "wscript.exe" or "cscript.exe" is running.

Re: Generate List of Missing Updates

PostPosted: 12.08.2019, 17:45
by josephbutler
The script took about 4 minutes to run.

I verified that the Windows Update Service was running, it was triggered when the script was executed.

I verified that the Windows Scripting host was running in task manager.

Still did not see the log file get generated....I kept refreshing the folder.

Re: Generate List of Missing Updates

PostPosted: 12.08.2019, 21:23
by josephbutler
Dalai wrote:Did you copy the catalog file to %TEMP% directory? Is the Windows Update service enabled on your system? What (error) message do you get when you run
Code: Select all
cscript.exe //nologo path\to\wsusoffline\client\cmd\ListMissingUpdateIds.vbs


Regards
Dalai


I did cop it to the %Temp% directory. When i ran the above command with the //nologo, I did not receive any error messages.

Re: Generate List of Missing Updates

PostPosted: 14.08.2019, 02:06
by aker
Which version of Windows do you use? (If it's Windows 10, please post the full version and build number shown under "winver")
x86/32bit or x64/64bit?

Re: Generate List of Missing Updates

PostPosted: 14.08.2019, 12:27
by josephbutler
Windows 10 pro
64-bit
Version 1903 (OS build 18362.239)