WSUS Help

Obsolesce

I'd rather just move away from Windows, mainly because of their update issues.

black3dynamite

@obsolesce said in WSUS Help:

I'd rather just move away from Windows, mainly because of their update issues.

I actually had to use a Windows 10 installer to upgrade a computer to version 1803.

siringo

@obsolesce said in WSUS Help:

I'd rather just move away from Windows, mainly because of their update issues.

Yep. Read just this morning that MS are working on some type of AI to work out if you're using your PC or not. Have you gone to get coffee or gone for a walk and if the AI thinks you're away for long enough it'll install updates & reboot your PC.

Why not just do as they always had in the past and ask the user, do you want to install this now Y/N? & leave it up to the user.

I know it's about patching because patching is a good thing and plug holes, increase security etc etc, but ....

nadnerB

@siringo said in WSUS Help:

Why not just do as they always had in the past and ask the user, do you want to install this now Y/N? & leave it up to the user.

I know it's about patching because patching is a good thing and plug holes, increase security etc etc, but ....

The meatware has proved ~~incompetent and unreliable~~ reliably incompetent.

EDIT: accuracy

Obsolesce

If it would go as smoothly as Linux where you can let dnf automatic do it whenever and not kill your PC or server reliability , I'd use Windows more.

siringo

Stumbled across this script, I'm no powershell expert, my limit is spelling it correctly. Anyone want to have a look at this?

From here:
https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/PSWsusSpringClean/0.4.0/Content/PSWsusSpringClean.psm1

Function Invoke-WsusSpringClean {
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Performs additional WSUS server clean-up beyond the capabilities of the built-in tools.
.DESCRIPTION
Adds the ability to decline numerous additional commonly unneeded updates as well as discover potentially incorrectly declined updates.
.PARAMETER RunDefaultTasks
Performs all clean-up tasks except for declining any unneeded updates as defined in the included update catalogue CSV file.

    You can disable one or more of the default clean-up tasks by setting the associated switch parameter to false (e.g. -CompressUpdates:$false). 

    You can perform a clean-up of unneeded updates by specifying the DeclineCategoriesInclude or DeclineCategoriesExclude parameter with your chosen categories. 

    Also note that this does not perform a server synchronisation before clean-up or find suspect declined updates. These tasks can be included via their respective parameters. 
    .PARAMETER SynchroniseServer 
    Perform a synchronisation against the upstream server before running cleanup. 
    .PARAMETER FindSuspectDeclines 
    Scan all declined updates for any that may have been inadvertently declined. 

    The returned suspect updates are those which: 
     - Are not superseded or expired 
     - Are not cluster or farm updates (if set to decline) 
     - Are not in the filtered list of updates to decline from the bundled catalogue 
    .PARAMETER DeclineClusterUpdates 
    Decline any updates which are exclusively for failover clustering installations. 
    .PARAMETER DeclineFarmUpdates 
    Decline any updates which are exclusively for farm deployment installations. 
    .PARAMETER DeclinePrereleaseUpdates 
    Decline any updates which are exclusively for pre-release products (e.g. betas). 
    .PARAMETER DeclineSecurityOnlyUpdates 
    Decline any Security Only updates. 
    .PARAMETER DeclineArchitectures 
    Array of update architectures to decline. 

    Valid options are: x64, ia64, arm64 

    We don't support declining x86 updates as there's no mechanism to determine which updates are x86 specific versus multi-architecture. 
    .PARAMETER DeclineCategoriesExclude 
    Array of update categories in the bundled updates catalogue to not decline. 
    .PARAMETER DeclineCategoriesInclude 
    Array of update categories in the bundled updates catalogue to decline. 
    .PARAMETER DeclineLanguagesExclude 
    Array of update language codes to not decline. 
    .PARAMETER DeclineLanguagesInclude 
    Array of update language codes to decline. 
    .PARAMETER CleanupObsoleteComputers 
    Specifies that the cmdlet deletes obsolete computers from the database. 
    .PARAMETER CleanupObsoleteUpdates 
    Specifies that the cmdlet deletes obsolete updates from the database. 
    .PARAMETER CleanupUnneededContentFiles 
    Specifies that the cmdlet deletes unneeded update files. 
    .PARAMETER CompressUpdates 
    Specifies that the cmdlet deletes obsolete revisions to updates from the database. 
    .PARAMETER DeclineExpiredUpdates 
    Specifies that the cmdlet declines expired updates. 
    .PARAMETER DeclineSupersededUpdates 
    Specifies that the cmdlet declines superseded updates. 
    .EXAMPLE 
    PS C:\>$SuspectDeclines = Invoke-WsusSpringClean -RunDefaultTasks -FindSuspectDeclines 

    Runs the default clean-up tasks & checks for declined updates that may not be intentional. 
    .EXAMPLE 
    PS C:\>Invoke-WsusSpringClean -DeclineCategoriesInclude @('Region - US', 'Superseded') 

    Declines all unneeded updates in the "Region - US" & "Superseded" categories. 
    .EXAMPLE 
    PS C:\>Invoke-WsusSpringClean -DeclineLanguagesExclude @('en-AU') 

    Declines all language specific updates excluding those for English (Australia). 
    .EXAMPLE 
    PS C:\>Invoke-WsusSpringClean -DeclineArchitectures @('arm64', 'ia64') 

    Declines all architecture specific updates for ARM64 & IA64 (Itanium) systems. 
    .NOTES 
    The script intentionally avoids usage of most WSUS cmdlets provided by the UpdateServices module as many are extremely slow. This is particularly true of the Get-WsusUpdate cmdlet. 

    The efficiency of the update declining logic could be substantially improved. That said, this script is not typically run frequently (~monthly), so this isn't a major priority. 
    .LINK 
    https://github.com/ralish/PSWsusSpringClean 
#>

[CmdletBinding(DefaultParameterSetName='Default',SupportsShouldProcess)]
Param(
    [Switch]$RunDefaultTasks,
    [Switch]$SynchroniseServer,
    [Switch]$FindSuspectDeclines,

    [Switch]$DeclineClusterUpdates,
    [Switch]$DeclineFarmUpdates,
    [Switch]$DeclinePrereleaseUpdates,
    [Switch]$DeclineSecurityOnlyUpdates,

    [String[]]$DeclineCategoriesExclude,
    [String[]]$DeclineCategoriesInclude,

    [ValidateScript({Test-WsusSpringCleanArchitectures -Architectures $_})]
    [String[]]$DeclineArchitectures,

    [ValidateScript({Test-WsusSpringCleanLanguageCodes -LanguageCodes $_})]
    [String[]]$DeclineLanguagesExclude,

    [ValidateScript({Test-WsusSpringCleanLanguageCodes -LanguageCodes $_})]
    [String[]]$DeclineLanguagesInclude,

    # Wrapping of Invoke-WsusServerCleanup
    [Switch]$CleanupObsoleteComputers,
    [Switch]$CleanupObsoleteUpdates,
    [Switch]$CleanupUnneededContentFiles,
    [Switch]$CompressUpdates,
    [Switch]$DeclineExpiredUpdates,
    [Switch]$DeclineSupersededUpdates
)

# Ensure that any errors we receive are considered fatal
$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'

if ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('DeclineCategoriesExclude') -and $PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('DeclineCategoriesInclude')) {
    throw 'Can only specify one of DeclineCategoriesExclude and DeclineCategoriesInclude.'
}

if ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('DeclineLanguagesExclude') -and $PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('DeclineLanguagesInclude')) {
    throw 'Can only specify one of DeclineLanguagesExclude and DeclineLanguagesInclude.'
}

if (!$script:WscMetadata) {
    Import-WsusSpringCleanMetadata
}

if ($RunDefaultTasks) {
    $DefaultTasks = @(
        'DeclineClusterUpdates',
        'DeclineFarmUpdates',
        'DeclinePrereleaseUpdates',
        'DeclineSecurityOnlyUpdates',

        'CleanupObsoleteComputers',
        'CleanupObsoleteUpdates',
        'CleanupUnneededContentFiles',
        'CompressUpdates',
        'DeclineExpiredUpdates',
        'DeclineSupersededUpdates'
    )

    foreach ($Task in $DefaultTasks) {
        if ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey($Task)) {
            Set-Variable -Name $Task -Value (Get-Variable -Name $Task).Value -WhatIf:$false
        } else {
            Set-Variable -Name $Task -Value $true -WhatIf:$false
        }
    }
}

# Regular expressions for declining certain types of updates
$script:RegExClusterUpdates = ' Failover Clustering '
$script:RegExFarmUpdates = ' Farm[- ]'
$script:RegExPrereleaseUpdates = ' (Beta|Preview|RC1|Release Candidate) '
$script:RegExSecurityOnlyUpdates = ' Security Only (Quality )?Update '

# Determine which categories of updates to decline (if any)
if ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('DeclineCategoriesExclude') -or $PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('DeclineCategoriesInclude')) {
    Import-WsusSpringCleanCatalogue
    $CatalogueCategories = $script:WscCatalogue.Category | Sort-Object | Get-Unique

    if ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('DeclineCategoriesExclude')) {
        $DeclineCategories = $CatalogueCategories | Where-Object { $_ -notin $DeclineCategoriesExclude }
    } else {
        $DeclineCategories = $CatalogueCategories | Where-Object { $_ -in $DeclineCategoriesInclude }
    }
}

# Fetch the metadata for any architectures we're going to decline
if ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('DeclineArchitectures')) {
    $DeclineArchitecturesMetadata = @()
    foreach ($Architecture in $DeclineArchitectures) {
        $DeclineArchitecturesMetadata += $script:WscMetadata.SelectSingleNode('//Architectures/Architecture[@name="{0}"]' -f $Architecture)
    }
}

# Fetch the metadata for any languages we're going to decline
if ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('DeclineLanguagesExclude')) {
    $DeclineLanguagesMetadata = $script:WscMetadata.Languages.Language | Where-Object { $_.code -notin $DeclineLanguagesExclude }
} elseif ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('DeclineLanguagesInclude')) {
    $DeclineLanguagesMetadata = $script:WscMetadata.Languages.Language | Where-Object { $_.code -in $DeclineLanguagesInclude }
}

if ($SynchroniseServer) {
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "`r`nStarting WSUS server synchronisation ..."
    Invoke-WsusServerSynchronisation
}

Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "`r`nBeginning WSUS server cleanup (Phase 1) ..."
$CleanupWrapperParams = @{
    CleanupObsoleteUpdates=$CleanupObsoleteUpdates
    CompressUpdates=$CompressUpdates
    DeclineExpiredUpdates=$DeclineExpiredUpdates
    DeclineSupersededUpdates=$DeclineSupersededUpdates
}
Invoke-WsusServerCleanupWrapper @CleanupWrapperParams

Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "`r`nBeginning WSUS server cleanup (Phase 2) ..."
$SpringCleanParams = @{
    DeclineClusterUpdates=$DeclineClusterUpdates
    DeclineFarmUpdates=$DeclineFarmUpdates
    DeclinePrereleaseUpdates=$DeclinePrereleaseUpdates
    DeclineSecurityOnlyUpdates=$DeclineSecurityOnlyUpdates
}

if ($DeclineCategories) {
    $SpringCleanParams += @{DeclineCategories=$DeclineCategories}
}

if ($DeclineArchitecturesMetadata) {
    $SpringCleanParams += @{DeclineArchitectures=$DeclineArchitecturesMetadata}
}

if ($DeclineLanguagesMetadata) {
    $SpringCleanParams += @{DeclineLanguages=$DeclineLanguagesMetadata}
}

Invoke-WsusServerSpringClean @SpringCleanParams

Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "`r`nBeginning WSUS server cleanup (Phase 3) ..."
$CleanupWrapperParams = @{
    CleanupObsoleteComputers=$CleanupObsoleteComputers
    CleanupUnneededContentFiles=$CleanupUnneededContentFiles
}
Invoke-WsusServerCleanupWrapper @CleanupWrapperParams

if ($FindSuspectDeclines) {
    Get-WsusSuspectDeclines @SpringCleanParams
}

}

Function Get-WsusSuspectDeclines {
[CmdletBinding()]
Param(
[Switch]$DeclineClusterUpdates,
[Switch]$DeclineFarmUpdates,
[Switch]$DeclinePrereleaseUpdates,
[Switch]$DeclineSecurityOnlyUpdates,

    [String[]]$DeclineCategories,
    [Xml.XmlElement[]]$DeclineArchitectures,
    [Xml.XmlElement[]]$DeclineLanguages
)

$WsusServer = Get-WsusServer
$UpdateScope = New-Object -TypeName Microsoft.UpdateServices.Administration.UpdateScope

Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green '[*] Retrieving declined updates ...'
$UpdateScope.ApprovedStates = [Microsoft.UpdateServices.Administration.ApprovedStates]::Declined
$WsusDeclined = $WsusServer.GetUpdates($UpdateScope)

# Ignore all updates corresponding to architectures, categories or languages we declined
$IgnoredCatalogueCategories = $script:WscCatalogue | Where-Object { $_.Category -in $DeclineCategories }
$IgnoredArchitecturesRegEx = ' ({0})' -f [String]::Join('|', $DeclineArchitectures.regex)
$IgnoredLanguagesRegEx = ' [[]?({0})(_LP|_LIP)?[]]?' -f [String]::Join('|', $DeclineLanguages.code)

Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green '[*] Finding suspect declined updates ...'
$SuspectDeclines = @()
foreach ($Update in $WsusDeclined) {
    # Ignore superseded and expired updates
    if ($Update.IsSuperseded -or $Update.PublicationState -eq 'Expired') {
        continue
    }

    # Ignore cluster updates if they were declined
    if ($DeclineClusterUpdates -and $Update.Title -match $RegExClusterUpdates) {
        continue
    }

    # Ignore farm updates if they were declined
    if ($DeclineFarmUpdates -and $Update.Title -match $RegExFarmUpdates) {
        continue
    }

    # Ignore pre-release updates if they were declined
    if ($DeclinePrereleaseUpdates -and $Update.Title -match $RegExPrereleaseUpdates) {
        continue
    }

    # Ignore Security Only Quality updates if they were declined
    if ($DeclineSecurityOnlyUpdates -and $Update.Title -match $RegExSecurityOnlyUpdates) {
        continue
    }

    # Ignore any update categories which were declined
    if ($Update.Title -in $IgnoredCatalogueCategories.Title) {
        continue
    }

    # Ignore any update architectures which were declined
    if ($Update.Title -match $IgnoredArchitecturesRegEx) {
        continue
    }

    # Ignore any update languages which were declined
    if ($Update.Title -match $IgnoredLanguagesRegEx) {
        continue
    }

    $SuspectDeclines += $Update
}

return $SuspectDeclines

}

Function Import-WsusSpringCleanMetadata {
[CmdletBinding()]
Param()

Write-Verbose -Message '[*] Importing module metadata ...'
$MetadataPath = Join-Path -Path $PSScriptRoot -ChildPath 'PSWsusSpringClean.xml'
$script:WscMetadata = ([Xml](Get-Content -Path $MetadataPath)).PSWsusSpringClean

}

Function Invoke-WsusDeclineUpdatesByCatalogue {
[CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess)]
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory)]
[Microsoft.UpdateServices.Internal.BaseApi.Update[]]$Updates,

    [Parameter(Mandatory)]
    [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
    [String]$Category
)

Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green ('[*] Declining updates in category: {0}' -f $Category)
$UpdatesToDecline = $script:WscCatalogue | Where-Object { $_.Category -eq $Category }
$MatchingUpdates = $Updates | Where-Object { $_.Title -in $UpdatesToDecline.Title }

foreach ($Update in $MatchingUpdates) {
    if ($PSCmdlet.ShouldProcess($Update.Title, 'Decline')) {
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan ('[-] Declining update: {0}' -f $Update.Title)
        $Update.Decline()
    }
}

}

Function Invoke-WsusDeclineUpdatesByRegEx {
[CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess)]
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory)]
[Microsoft.UpdateServices.Internal.BaseApi.Update[]]$Updates,

    [Parameter(Mandatory)]
    [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
    [String]$RegEx
)

foreach ($Update in $Updates) {
    if ($Update.Title -match $RegEx) {
        if ($PSCmdlet.ShouldProcess($Update.Title, 'Decline')) {
            Write-Host -ForegroundColor Cyan ('[-] Declining update: {0}' -f $Update.Title)
            $Update.Decline()
        }
    }
}

}

Function Invoke-WsusServerCleanupWrapper {
[CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess)]
Param(
[Switch]$CleanupObsoleteComputers,
[Switch]$CleanupObsoleteUpdates,
[Switch]$CleanupUnneededContentFiles,
[Switch]$CompressUpdates,
[Switch]$DeclineExpiredUpdates,
[Switch]$DeclineSupersededUpdates
)

if ($CleanupObsoleteComputers) {
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green '[*] Deleting obsolete computers ...'
    Write-Host (Invoke-WsusServerCleanup -CleanupObsoleteComputers)
}

if ($CleanupObsoleteUpdates) {
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green '[*] Deleting obsolete updates ...'
    Write-Host (Invoke-WsusServerCleanup -CleanupObsoleteUpdates)
}

if ($CleanupUnneededContentFiles) {
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green '[*] Deleting unneeded update files ...'
    Write-Host (Invoke-WsusServerCleanup -CleanupUnneededContentFiles)
}

if ($CompressUpdates) {
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green '[*] Deleting obsolete update revisions ...'
    Write-Host (Invoke-WsusServerCleanup -CompressUpdates)
}

if ($DeclineExpiredUpdates) {
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green '[*] Declining expired updates ...'
    Write-Host (Invoke-WsusServerCleanup -DeclineExpiredUpdates)
}

if ($DeclineSupersededUpdates) {
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green '[*] Declining superseded updates ...'
    Write-Host (Invoke-WsusServerCleanup -DeclineSupersededUpdates)
}

}

Function Invoke-WsusServerSynchronisation {
[CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess)]
Param()

$WsusServer = Get-WsusServer

if ($PSCmdlet.ShouldProcess($env:COMPUTERNAME, 'WSUS synchronization')) {
    $SyncStatus = $WsusServer.GetSubscription().GetSynchronizationStatus()
    if ($SyncStatus -eq 'NotProcessing') {
        $WsusServer.GetSubscription().StartSynchronization()
    } elseif ($SyncStatus -eq 'Running') {
        Write-Warning -Message "[!] A synchronisation appears to already be running! We'll wait for this one to complete ..."
    } else {
        throw ('WSUS server returned unknown synchronisation status: {0}' -f $SyncStatus)
    }

    do {
        Start-Sleep -Seconds 5
    } while ($WsusServer.GetSubscription().GetSynchronizationStatus() -eq 'Running')

    $SyncResult = $WsusServer.GetSubscription().GetLastSynchronizationInfo().Result
    if ($SyncResult -ne 'Succeeded') {
        throw ('WSUS server synchronisation completed with unexpected result: {0}' -f $SyncResult)
    }
}

}

Function Invoke-WsusServerSpringClean {
[CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess)]
Param(
[Switch]$DeclineClusterUpdates,
[Switch]$DeclineFarmUpdates,
[Switch]$DeclinePrereleaseUpdates,
[Switch]$DeclineSecurityOnlyUpdates,

    [String[]]$DeclineCategories,
    [Xml.XmlElement[]]$DeclineArchitectures,
    [Xml.XmlElement[]]$DeclineLanguages
)

$WsusServer = Get-WsusServer
$UpdateScope = New-Object -TypeName Microsoft.UpdateServices.Administration.UpdateScope

Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green '[*] Retrieving approved updates ...'
$UpdateScope.ApprovedStates = [Microsoft.UpdateServices.Administration.ApprovedStates]::LatestRevisionApproved
$WsusApproved = $WsusServer.GetUpdates($UpdateScope)

Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green '[*] Retrieving unapproved updates ...'
$UpdateScope.ApprovedStates = [Microsoft.UpdateServices.Administration.ApprovedStates]::NotApproved
$WsusUnapproved = $WsusServer.GetUpdates($UpdateScope)

$WsusAnyExceptDeclined = $WsusApproved + $WsusUnapproved

if ($DeclineClusterUpdates) {
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green '[*] Declining cluster updates ...'
    Invoke-WsusDeclineUpdatesByRegEx -Updates $WsusAnyExceptDeclined -RegEx $script:RegExClusterUpdates
}

if ($DeclineFarmUpdates) {
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green '[*] Declining farm updates ...'
    Invoke-WsusDeclineUpdatesByRegEx -Updates $WsusAnyExceptDeclined -RegEx $script:RegExFarmUpdates
}

if ($DeclinePrereleaseUpdates) {
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green '[*] Declining pre-release updates ...'
    Invoke-WsusDeclineUpdatesByRegEx -Updates $WsusAnyExceptDeclined -RegEx $script:RegExPrereleaseUpdates
}

if ($DeclineSecurityOnlyUpdates) {
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green '[*] Declining Security Only updates ...'
    Invoke-WsusDeclineUpdatesByRegEx -Updates $WsusAnyExceptDeclined -RegEx $script:RegExSecurityOnlyUpdates
}

if ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('DeclineCategories')) {
    foreach ($Category in $DeclineCategories) {
        Invoke-WsusDeclineUpdatesByCatalogue -Updates $WsusAnyExceptDeclined -Category $Category
    }
}

if ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('DeclineArchitectures')) {
    foreach ($Architecture in $DeclineArchitectures) {
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green ('[*] Declining updates with architecture: {0}' -f $Architecture.name)
        $ArchitectureRegEx = ' ({0})' -f $Architecture.regex
        Invoke-WsusDeclineUpdatesByRegEx -Updates $WsusAnyExceptDeclined -RegEx $ArchitectureRegEx
    }
}

if ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('DeclineLanguages')) {
    foreach ($Language in $DeclineLanguages) {
        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green ('[*] Declining updates with language: {0}' -f $Language.code)
        $LanguageRegEx = ' [[]?{0}(_LP|_LIP)?[]]?' -f $Language.code
        Invoke-WsusDeclineUpdatesByRegEx -Updates $WsusAnyExceptDeclined -RegEx $LanguageRegEx
    }
}

}

Function Test-WsusSpringCleanArchitectures {
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory)]
[String[]]$Architectures
)

if (!$script:WscMetadata) {
    Import-WsusSpringCleanMetadata
}

$KnownArchitectures = $script:WscMetadata.Architectures.Architecture.name
foreach ($Architecture in $Architectures) {
    if ($Architecture -notin $KnownArchitectures) {
        throw 'Unknown architecture specified: {0}' -f $Architecture
    }
}

return $true

}

Function Test-WsusSpringCleanLanguageCodes {
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory)]
[String[]]$LanguageCodes
)

if (!$script:WscMetadata) {
    Import-WsusSpringCleanMetadata
}

$KnownLanguageCodes = $script:WscMetadata.Languages.Language.code
foreach ($LanguageCode in $LanguageCodes) {
    if ($LanguageCode -notin $KnownLanguageCodes) {
        throw 'Unknown language code specified: {0}' -f $LanguageCode
    }
}

return $true

}

Function ConvertTo-WsusSpringCleanCatalogue {
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory,ValueFromPipeline)]
[Microsoft.UpdateServices.Internal.BaseApi.Update[]]$Updates
)

Process {
    foreach ($Update in $Updates) {
        [String[]]$ProductTitles = @()
        foreach ($ProductTitle in $Update.ProductTitles) {
            $ProductTitles += $ProductTitle
        }

        [PSCustomObject]@{
            'Category'      = 'Unknown'
            'Title'         = $Update.Title
            'ProductTitles' = [String]::Join(', ', $ProductTitles)
        }
    }
}

}

Function Import-WsusSpringCleanCatalogue {
[CmdletBinding()]
Param(
[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
[String]$CataloguePath
)

if (!$CataloguePath) {
    $CataloguePath = Join-Path -Path $PSScriptRoot -ChildPath 'PSWsusSpringClean.csv'
}

Write-Verbose -Message '[*] Importing update catalogue ...'
$script:WscCatalogue = Import-Csv -Path $CataloguePath

}

Function Test-WsusSpringCleanCatalogue {
[CmdletBinding()]
Param(
[ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]
[String]$CataloguePath
)

Import-WsusSpringCleanCatalogue @PSBoundParameters

Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green '[*] Retrieving all updates ...'
$WsusServer = Get-WsusServer
$WsusUpdateScope = New-Object -TypeName Microsoft.UpdateServices.Administration.UpdateScope
$WsusUpdateScope.ApprovedStates = [Microsoft.UpdateServices.Administration.ApprovedStates]::Any
$WsusUpdates = $WsusServer.GetUpdates($WsusUpdateScope)

Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green '[*] Scanning for updates only present in catalogue ...'
$CatalogueOnly = @()
foreach ($Update in $script:WscCatalogue) {
    if ($Update.Title -notin $WsusUpdates.Title) {
        $CatalogueOnly += $Update
    }
}

return $CatalogueOnly

}

Looks like it pasted in stupidly, sorry.

black3dynamite

@siringo That was definitely difficult to followed from my iPhone.

Obsolesce

@siringo It's a start, but there's more to do besides just removing unused updates.

siringo

@black3dynamite said in WSUS Help:

@siringo That was definitely difficult to followed from my iPhone.

hahaha. I bet.

pmoncho

@jaredbusch said in WSUS Help:

@pmoncho said in WSUS Help:

@siringo said in WSUS Help:

Finally setup wsus on a 2016 server. All went well except I told it I wanted updates for Windows 7, which I've decided I don't want.

I told it I want updates for Windows 10 and it's downloading updates for all flavours of Windows 10, we only run Pro. So far it's filled up the 200GBs I set aside for it only 3 days ago.

I can uninstall wsus and start again, that's not a problem, is that the quickest and easiest way to get some of my 200GBs back and start over?

And, how can I tell it I only want updates for W10 Pro?

And, if anyone has a link to a 'I don't want to think too much' guide for setting up wsus, I'd be keen to take a look.

Thanks for any help.

You may want to check out for Clean-WSUS. Excellent script to help clean up WSUS.

Except it is no longer available.

Well Shit! I see that now. UGH!

MattSpeller

WSUS is a pain in the ass

pmoncho

@mattspeller said in WSUS Help:

WSUS is a pain in the ass

I agree. Without derailing the off-topic to far, I'm wondering what do others use as an alternative? PDQ Deploy?

jmoore

@pmoncho We have pdq and it might work but I don't use it for that. I really just use powershell to pull and install updates. Seems like it misses some but not a lot.

Obsolesce

@pmoncho said in WSUS Help:

@mattspeller said in WSUS Help:

WSUS is a pain in the ass

I agree. Without derailing the off-topic to far, I'm wondering what do others use as an alternative? PDQ Deploy?

The only real alternative is to use WSUS to stop updates completely, using it only to see which updates to deploy manually via SaltStack.

But really, WSUS is working fine, it's no more of a pain than doing it any other way.

If you don't update, you risk security issues, if you do update, you risk breaking shit... but I think MS is working on it. We'll see.

Edit: WSUS isn't too bad if you set it to only download updates you approve, and clean up updates that are no longer needed. Speed wise, there's a script to speed up the database.

momurda

@obsolesce From what i can tell MS hasnt updated WSUS in any way since 2013.

Obsolesce

@momurda said in WSUS Help:

@obsolesce From what i can tell MS hasnt updated WSUS in any way since 2013.

There's no need to... what could they possibly do to make it any better?

momurda

Well, the mmc crashes constantly. The updates dont install when you tell them too, computers dont follow the dont restart time windows. iisreset is required once a week to to even get mmc to populate data. Issues like that for a decade theyve done nothing about.

Obsolesce

@momurda said in WSUS Help:

Well, the mmc crashes constantly. The updates dont install when you tell them too, computers dont follow the dont restart time windows. iisreset is required once a week to to even get mmc to populate data. Issues like that for a decade theyve done nothing about.

I don't have any of those issues, and I've been using WSUS a lot for a long time.

IRJ

WSUS is a pile of shit. It will be nice when Microsoft introduces its monthly maintenance plan.

scottalanmiller

@irj said in WSUS Help:

WSUS is a pile of shit. It will be nice when Microsoft introduces its monthly maintenance plan.

Agreed, it's a disaster.