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How to capture all installed Windows updates and all installed programs with WMIC.

Rich Talbot
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Product: TIBCO Spotfire®

Problem:

How to capture all installed Windows updates and all installed programs with WMIC.


Solution:

The Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC) provides a quick way to get details on Windows computer configurations. This can be used to get a list of all programs installed or all installed Windows OS hotfixes and updates. This can be useful for comparing Windows servers and client machines to look for possible deviations on a problematic machine. For example, the problem machine may not have a particular patch installed and this would be a way to get information on the installed patches. This can also be used to identify a program that is interfering with Spotfire's operations.

  1. Open the command prompt (c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe).
  2. Run the wmic command with the additional parameters to output the required data. For example:
 
List of all installed Windows OS hotfixes and updates
Run the following command to generate a list of all installed Windows OS hotfixes/updates and output this to a txt file:
  • wmic qfe > myInstalledOSPatches.txt
Example Results:
Caption                                     CSName           Description      FixComments  HotFixID   InstallDate  InstalledBy                    InstalledOn  Name  ServicePackInEffect  Status  
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2894856  WIN-ERITRCNTKKT  Security Update               KB2894856               WIN-ERITRCNTKKT\Administrator  12/2/2014                                       
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2896496  WIN-ERITRCNTKKT  Update                        KB2896496               WIN-ERITRCNTKKT\Administrator  12/2/2014                                       
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2918614  WIN-ERITRCNTKKT  Security Update               KB2918614               WIN-ERITRCNTKKT\Administrator  12/2/2014                                       
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2919355  WIN-ERITRCNTKKT  Update                        KB2919355        
...
 
List of all installed Programs
Run the following command to generate a list of all programs installed on the machine.
  • wmic product get name,version > myInstalledPrograms.txt
Example Results:
Name                                                              Version          
Lenovo Patch Utility                                              1.3.0.9          
Microsoft Lync Web App Plug-in                                    15.8.8308.577    
grepWin x64                                                       1.6.546          
Lenovo Patch Utility 64 bit                                       1.3.0.9          
Citrix Online Launcher                                            1.0.198          

...

 
You can view the full reference for the Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line by accessing the URL listed in the Reference section.
External: Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC)

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