Geek Software of the Week: WUInstall!

So, I needed a way to automate updates on my Citrix servers from a script, so I searched for a command line utility that would simpify all this. And, hooray! There is a tool that is freeware called WUInstall! It works with or without WSUS! Cool stuff!

There is also a Pro version with additional features. However, the Free version can be used commercially, or at home!

WUInstall – Automatic Command Line Windows Updater

“WuInstall enforces Windows updates and makes the entire updating process user friendly. The basic version WuInstall 1.1. is freeware.

Basic functions

Searching for updates:

/search – lists all update which are available. It either searches on the Windows Update Server in the Internet, or, if configured, on your WSUS. It has no impact on your system at all, it just does a search and lists what was found.

Download updates:

/download – does the same search as WuInstall /search and then downloads the updates which were found. WuInstall itself does not download anything, but it triggers the Microsoft Windows Update Engine, which downloads the updates.

Install updates:

/install – searches the updates, downloads them (if they have not already been downloaded by a previous wuInstall /download command) and then installs them.

New features in version 1.1:

/reboot [nseconds] possible in combination with other parameters, reboot is done after executing WuInstall with a delay of nseconds (default: 10) seconds

/criteria “query string” – searches for updates, which match the query string. For query strings see MSDN. The default criteria is “IsInstalled=0 and Type=’Software'”.

/match “search string” – searches for updates which match the search string (no regular expressions possible so far!)”