Some Notes on the Machines

So you have an administrative command line, and you want to run the uninstaller of all msiexec-installed items whose names start with PQ. Here’s how:

wmic product where "name like 'PQ%'" call uninstall /nointeractive

If you wanted to run the uninstaller for everything with PQRST anywhere in its name, a double wildcard works too:

wmic product where "name like '%PQRST%'" call uninstall /nointeractive

This command line will upgrade many things, run it in administrative shell:

winget upgrade --all --include-unknown

Don’t try this with Autodesk products installed, and there are probably other situations to watch for too.

It’s built into most OEM installs of Windows 10 and 11, and can often be installed. On server builds it’s touch and go.

To see if you have it, try winget list from CMD or Powershell.

One good way to test it, is to install Microsoft .NET framework (SDK) 6, thus, from administrative Powershell:

winget install --id Microsoft.DotNet.Runtime.6 --silent --accept-source-agreements

I learned just now that if you add other seemingly valuable options to the one above, e.g., --scope machine, at least while running as SYSTEM, it will fail citing package not found. So you’ll want to test carefully.

Here’s one proven just now for 7zip (there’s a “search” option in winget to get the ID):

winget install --exact --id 7zip.7zip --accept-package-agreements --silent --scope machine

Here’s one for Google Chrome, needs a bit of extra:

winget.exe install --exact --id Google.Chrome --silent --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements --scope machine

And here’s a way to upgrade everything Winget can upgrade. There are some systems to not use this on, e.g., anything with some Autodesk products:

winget upgrade --all --include-unknown

If you do want to use it from the SYSTEM account, in scripting, it gets interesting. You’ll want to first run the below, and then winget will run as expected.

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
# Function to find the path to winget.exe
function Find-WinGet-Path {
    # Get the WinGet path (for use when running in SYSTEM context).
    $WinGetPathToResolve = Join-Path -Path $ENV:ProgramFiles -ChildPath 'WindowsApps\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_*_*__8wekyb3d8bbwe'
    $ResolveWinGetPath = Resolve-Path -Path $WinGetPathToResolve | Sort-Object {
        [version]($_.Path -replace '^[^\d]+_((\d+\.)*\d+)_.*', '$1')
    }
    if ($ResolveWinGetPath) {
        # If we have multiple versions - use the latest.
        $WinGetPath = $ResolveWinGetPath[-1].Path
    }

    # Get the User-Context WinGet exe location.
    $WinGetExePath = Get-Command -Name winget.exe -CommandType Application -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

    # Select the correct WinGet exe
    if (Test-Path -Path (Join-Path $WinGetPath 'winget.exe')) {
        # Running in SYSTEM-Context.
        $WinGet = Join-Path $WinGetPath 'winget.exe'
    } elseif ($WinGetExePath) {
        # Get User-Context if SYSTEM-Context not found.
        $WinGet = $WinGetExePath.Path
    } else {
        Write-Output 'WinGet not Found!'
        Stop-Transcript
        exit 1
    }

    # Return WinGet path
    return ($WinGet -replace '\winget.exe','')
}

Function Add-PathVariable {
    param (
        [string]$addPath
    )
    if (Test-Path $addPath){
        $regexAddPath = [regex]::Escape($addPath)
        $arrPath = $env:Path -split ';' | Where-Object {$_ -notMatch 
"^$regexAddPath\\?"}
        $env:Path = ($arrPath + $addPath) -join ';'
    } else {
        Throw "'$addPath' is not a valid path."
    }
}

Add-PathVariable (Find-Winget-Path)

Installing has been even more interesting. I’ve tried a lot of things. The below worked very well recently on Server 2019 as well as Server 2022. Sometimes it fails once and has to be re-run. It is a script which installs prerequisites, and installs another script called winget-install. After the installations, it will run winget-install. Once successful, winget runs.

#begin script

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Force > $null

Function PrepareModule {
	param( [string]$ModuleName )

	"Preparing Powershell environment: Getting online " + $ModuleName + " info..."
	$OnlineModuleInfo = Find-Module $ModuleName -Repository PSGallery
	"Preparing Powershell environment: Getting local " + $ModuleName + " info (if exists)..."
	$LocalModuleInfo = Get-InstalledModule $ModuleName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue > $null

	If ($OnlineModuleInfo.Version -ne $LocalModuleInfo.Version) {
		"Preparing Powershell environment: Removing old " + $ModuleName + " (if exists)..."
		Uninstall-Module -Name $ModuleName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue > $null
		"Preparing Powershell environment: Installing new " + $ModuleName + "..."
		Install-Module -Name $ModuleName -Repository PSGallery
		"Preparing Powershell environment: Importing new " + $ModuleName + "..."
		Import-Module -Name $ModuleName
		}
}

"Setting up to use Powershell Gallery..."
Install-PackageProvider -Name NuGet -MinimumVersion 2.8.5.201 -Force
Install-Module PowerShellGet -Force
Set-PSRepository -InstallationPolicy Trusted -Name PSGallery

PrepareModule("NuGet")	

Install-Script -Name winget-install 
winget-install

#End script

HP Support Assistant is the oft-default tool, not suitable for automation. It does work, but often misses items, and sometimes just generally coughs. There is also the HP Image Assistant:

ftp.ext.hp.com/pub/caps-softpaq/cmit/HPIA.html

Its primary purpose is maintaining reference images, but it has a great command-line mode for full automatic downloads and updates. Download the installer, complete it, close the GUI tool, open Powershell or CMD, CD to the folder it created in command-line (it’s C:\SWSETUP\something), and run:

.\HPImageAssistant /Operation:Analyze /Category:All,Accessories /selection:All /action:Install /silent /reportFolder:c:\HPIA\Report /softpaqdownloadfolder:c:\HPIA\download

Then monitor its behavior in TASKMGR, and see the downloads piling up in C:\HPIA\download. If it needs a reboot, it will do it automatically. Even if it doesn’t, reboot is recommended, just to keep everything as smooth as possible.

Best I know is Dell Command Update. Can be installed using winget:

winget install Dell.CommandUpdate.Universal

This is a GUI tool, does a very good job.

This method uses Powershell module PsWindowsUpdate.

First, a complete script which gets the module in and updates everything available from Microsoft, including patches and drivers and firmware:

#begin script
[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
Set-Executionpolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process -Force
Install-PackageProvider -Name NuGet -Force -ErrorAction 'SilentlyContinue' > $null
Set-PSRepository -Name PSGallery -InstallationPolicy Trusted
If (Get-InstalledModule -Name PsWindowsUpdate -ErrorAction 'SilentlyContinue') {
	Update-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate -Force
} Else {
	Install-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate -Force
}
Import-Module PSWindowsUpdate
Install-WindowsUpdate -AcceptAll -AutoReboot
# end script

Next, the bits. We do need to install and keep up a module.

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
Set-Executionpolicy RemoteSigned -Scope Process -Force
Install-PackageProvider -Name NuGet -Force -ErrorAction 'SilentlyContinue' > $null
Set-PSRepository -Name PSGallery -InstallationPolicy Trusted
If (Get-InstalledModule -Name PsWindowsUpdate -ErrorAction 'SilentlyContinue') {
	Update-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate -Force
} Else {
	Install-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate -Force
}
Import-Module PSWindowsUpdate

Then we can check the list of available updates:

Get-WindowsUpdate

And then we probably want to actually do updates. There are good reasons and multiple methods to be careful. Alas, thus far, there does not appear to be a way to install updates a given number of days after release, e.g., 30, so as to give Microsoft time to respond to issues. Here is a glancing overview of what we do have:

Install-WindowsUpdate -NotCategory "Drivers","Service Packs","FeaturePacks" -NotTitle "preview" -AcceptAll 

Install-WindowsUpdate -NotCategory "Drivers","Service Packs","FeaturePacks" -NotTitle "preview" -AcceptAll -IgnoreReboot

Install-WindowsUpdate -AcceptAll -AutoReboot

Install-WindowsUpdate -NotKBArticleID KB1234567 -AcceptAll

Install-WindowsUpdate -NotKBArticleID KB1234567 -AcceptAll -IgnoreReboot

Install-WindowsUpdate -AcceptAll -NotKBArticleID "KB1234567,KB7654321"

Reset-WUComponents

Get-Command -Module PSWindowsUpdate

To do this, one must set a registry entry, this is Powershell:

$registryPath = "HKLM:\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup";
If ( !(Test-Path $registryPath) ) { New-Item -Path $registryPath -Force; };
New-ItemProperty -Path $registryPath -Name "AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU" -Value 1 -PropertyType DWORD -Force;

then download the ISO (not the recommended upgrader app), unpack it, and run setup.exe.

This is a curious method, seemingly very reliable, and it has many different builds, including 22H2, 23H2, 24H2 as of right now. Here’s the last 22H2:

uupdump.net/selectlang.php?id=0cda15f9-a14a-4adf-bb3c-2ce79d0de621

It is not the ISO itself, it is a script setup which uses OS resources to build an ISO.

Here it is:

support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds012808-lenovo-system-update-for-windows-10-7-32-bit-64-bit-desktop-notebook-workstation

It’s also available via Winget: winget install "Lenovo System Update"

This one works very well indeed. It does need a bit more technical intervention:

https://www.bcuninstaller.com