Get the last Windows Update install date using PowerShell

Question

I am trying to write a PowerShell script that will query all the servers in Active Directory and see the last date a Windows Update was applied.

I was having some trouble, so just to get it done, I created two scripts, one in Powershell to get the servers and the other in VBScript to query the last date. I found a this Powershell module that allows me to query the last install date, but it is extremely slow, especially on remote servers.

Here is the PS code:

Get-ADComputer -Filter 'OperatingSystem -like "*Server*"' -Properties * |
Select-Object Name | Sort-Object Name |
ForEach-Object {
    Get-WUHistory -ComputerName $_.Name | Sort-Object Date,ComputerName -Descending |
    Select-Object -First 1
}

Its so slow, its practically unusable.

I have some VBScript which I cobbled together that is much faster. See below:

On Error Resume Next
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set file = fso.OpenTextFile ("servers.csv", 1)
server = ""

Do Until file.AtEndOfStream
  line = file.Readline
  server = line
  'wscript.echo server
  Set objSession = CreateObject("Microsoft.Update.Session", server)
  If Err.Number <> 0 Then
    'WScript.Echo server & " Error: " & Err.Number & " Error (Hex): " & Hex(Err.Number) & " Source: " &  Err.Source & " Description: " &  Err.Description
    WScript.Echo server & " Communications Error"
    Err.Clear
  Else
      Set objSearcher = objSession.CreateUpdateSearcher
      Set colHistory = objSearcher.QueryHistory(1, 1)
      For Each objEntry in colHistory
        Wscript.Echo server & " " & objEntry.Date
      Next
  End If
Loop

file.Close

Is there an easy way to get the speed of the VBScript into the Powershell code?

---

Here is the working Powershell code (modified again) if anyone is interested:

$ErrorActionPreference= 'silentlycontinue'
Get-ADComputer -Filter 'OperatingSystem -like "*Server*"' -Properties * | Select-Object Name |
ForEach-Object {
    If (Test-Connection $_.Name -Count 1){
        Get-HotFix -ComputerName $_.Name | Sort-Object InstalledOn -Descending | Select-Object -First 1 
    }
    else {
        Write-host $_.Name " Connection Error"
    }
} |
Sort-Object InstalledOn

Solution 1

Does Get-HotFix meet your needs?

Get-HotFix -ComputerName $_.Name | Measure-Object InstalledOn -Maximum

Your performance issues could be coming from Get-ADComputer. I'd do some troubleshooting to see which piece is causing you problems.

Solution 2

Tim Ferrill already provided you the answer but for the record you could have done something like this

$ScriptBlock = {
    $hash=@{}
    $Session = New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.Update.Session
    $Searcher = $Session.CreateUpdateSearcher()
    $hash[$env:Computername] = $Searcher.QueryHistory(1,1) | select -ExpandProperty Date
    $hash
}

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $serverlist -ScriptBlock $ScriptBlock

This would get you something like

Name                    Value
----                    -----
Server1                 5/16/2014 2:11:42 PM
Server2                 4/14/2014 1:55:03 PM
Server3                 5/6/2014 5:36:51 PM

Comments

[Keltari]

If you mean Get-ADComputer, then no thats pretty quick. The slowness is definitely from Get-WUHistory. Im trying get-hotfix now.

[Tim Ferrill]

Yeah, that. Where'd I put that coffee?

[Keltari]

This works at a reasonable speed. Putting my amended script in the question.

[Keltari]

Hm. Ill check this out

[Admin]

Get-Hotfix does require Powershell 3.0 or greater, but a fair enough trade-off and as a bonus meets the requirement for many scenarios where a course-grained one-liner is enough.