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Get a list of Windows 2008 Updates in simple text format.

When recording the updates manually that have been installed on a system for my clients, it used to be easy in Windows 2003 since the update history was just a web page.

However, in Windows 2008/Vista/Window 7 it is no longer easy to copy all the updates which have been installed on a certain date with the description and KB numbers and paste them into my report.

I have found a way around this as Windows 2008/Vista/Window 7 has a log of all downloaded updates and if they have been installed successfully at the following location:

C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\ReportingEvents.log

It is a simple process of scrolling to the end of the log to copy the section that looks like the following:

{FD92377F-D788-4D8F-923F-6D07CE81DB3D} 2010-04-28 22:33:42:727-0700 1 184 101 {98140701-9959-0001-0000-812532895600} 102 0 AutomaticUpdates Success Content Install Installation successful and restart required for the following update: Update Rollup 10 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (KB981407){F45D593D-CA26-484A-AC33-C6724C83C954} 2010-04-28 22:35:49:984-0700 1 183 101 {E4AB408F-0208-4BB8-9782-C1D895DC4F78} 101 0 AutomaticUpdates Success Content Install Installation Successful: Windows successfully installed the following update: Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool x64 - April 2010 (KB890830)

Then you can paste it to a text file and clean it up or you can Paste Special as Unicode Text to a MS Excel spreadsheet to paste the data into nice columns which you can copy the specific data columns you want and then paste to your report.

Enjoy!

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