Some Notes on the Machines

This seems to be quite the tool. Haven’t tested it yet.

https://github.com/oneget/oneget

Can be installed or updated in 10 with: Install-Module -Name PackageManagement -Force

These packages bundle configurations, even domain joins, and other items. Native to Windows 10:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/provisioning-packages/provisioning-create-package

Sometimes Windows Installer will pile up a queue of items to be installed. These will show up as multiple ‘msiexec’ processes in TASKMGR. To clear them:

msiexec /unregister
taskkill /f /im msiexec.exe
msiexec /regserver

The idea is, first we take Windows Installer offline, then we kill any leftover stalled / queued processes, and lastly, we bring Windows Installer online again. Unless there’s something else in the backgrounds starting more of these things, this will take good care.

Updates are being distributed to Windows 10 via peer-to-peer methods, in addition to cloud-to-PC. This will be essential to handle the big build files, 4 gigabyte plus, at many sites.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/waas-delivery-optimization

Here’s a new one, seems to cover some good ground:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/10164/fix-windows-update-errors

Chocolatey is a great way to get a huge variety of software into your Windows machine in a very consistent way. Boxstarter uses Chocolatey for large repeated OS and package setups, both virtual and hardware. Boxstarter has a great Windows update method inside. To call it all via Powershell, one can do this (make sure you’re administrative):

$PSCred = Get-Credential
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Force
iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
choco install boxstarter -y
choco install boxstarter.chocolatey -y
Install-BoxstarterPackage -PackageName Boxstarter.WindowsUpdate -Credential $PScred

The credential is a local admin to the box, it is there so the updater can run through as many reboots as necessary to get the job done. Please do be aware that this will reboot the machine immediately after setup, and will reboot it repeatedly as needed to get the machine fully up to date. It also installs a public desktop icon called “Boxstarter Shell” which probably will need to be removed.

One can copy all of the above lines into a file, e.g., “winup.ps1”, and then run “.\winup” in an administrative Powershell, it will work very nicely.

This Powershell command does a lot of good:

Get-WMIObject Win32_Product | Sort-Object -Property Name | Format-Table Name, IdentifyingNumber -Wrap

It gets the names, and the long unique install codes (GUIDs), which look something like this:

{90160000-008C-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}

Usually one can then run this:

MsiExec.exe /x {90160000-008C-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE} /q /qn /norestart

to remove quietly. When this doesn’t work, there is a plan B:

Get-WMIObject Win32_Product | Sort-Object -Property Name | Format-Table Name, LocalPackage -Wrap

which gets the names and the locations of the system-local copies of the MSIs. One should be able to do the same MsiExec command on those too, though this does not always work either.

Here it is, all current versions:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027322/windows-update-troubleshooter

The “Update” button on this page delivers a method faster than most:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/software-download/windows10

This is something new to Windows 10/2016, a C runtime library different than the redistributables. It is a required additional install for some things to run on OS before 10/2016.

www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=50410