In this post I showed you how you can use PowerShell to install Windows Updates. Quickly and silently. This makes the use of PSWindowsUpdate module perfect for your day to day automation. The module even supports scheduling (on remote computers too!), it has the ability to search WSUS and Windows Update for updates, scheduling and performing the download and installation of updates.
Tag: Windows Update

Install SQL Server cumulative updates silently
Installing SQL Server cumulative updates is always a cumbersome, and quite daunting task. Unpacking and running the CU installer is a slow process, you have to click through a lot of screens, and it’s hard to get it to install silently. But here is how!
Remove computer object from Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) in PowerShell
Here is a short PowerShell snippet for you to remove a computer object from Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).
Force BITS to download WSUS updates in the foreground in Windows Server
When WSUS downloads are slow. WSUS uses BITS for downloading updates, and it does so in background mode. Unfortunately, this utilizes remaining bandwidth of the server instead of its full capacity. To speed up WSUS downloads, you can configure BITS in WSUS to use foreground.

Install Windows Server Servicing Stack Updates (SSU) using PowerShell
Install Servicing Stack Updates (SSU) for Windows Server 2012R2, 2016 and Windows Server 2019 using PowerShell, without downtime. Because they must be installed prior to your normal Windows Server security updates, you can install them anytime you want to during the day. Here’s a small PowerShell example to do so.

Manually failover all databases in an SQL Server Database Mirroring configuration
In this article I’ll show you how to force a failover in SQL Server 2017+, in an SQL Server Database Mirroring configuration. This can only be initiated from the principal SQL Server server, and the mirrored database must be synchronized (that is, when the database is in the SYNCHRONIZED state).
Important note about Windows Update KB4056892
There is another VERY IMPORTANT THING with Microsoft Meltdown patches like update KB4056892: – Customers will not receive these security updates and will not be protected from security vulnerabilities unless their anti-virus software vendor sets the following registry key:

WsusPool keeps crashing: stops again and again
Sometimes you find your WSUS server keeps crashing over and over again. The WSUS application pool periodically stops, WSUS is unavailable and/or the WSUS management console hangs. When you start to investigate as to why Windows Server Update Services crashes, you notice the error messagesbeing logged in the HTTPErr log files. In the Eventlog you might find errors indicating that the WSUS administration console is unable to connect to WSUS Server via remote API. Sometimes clients checking for Windows Updates would quickly error out with a code 0x80244021, which indicates the inability to reach WSUS. Here is how to improve Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) availability.

Windows Update error 0xc1420127 and 0xc190010b when upgrading Windows 8.1 to Windows 10
Last weekend I had to update my girlfriends laptop from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. Some might say, an easy task. Well, it wasn’t. After downloading the Windows 10 update through Windows Update, Windows Update returned errors 0xc1420127 and 0xc190010b, even using the Windows 10 media creation tool. And as always there are many reasons for these errors. In this short post, I’ll provide some possible solutions and tips.