Life Hacks - Patching a computer without Software Center GUI

    Sometimes you might find yourself in a rare situation when you have an urgent need to immediately patch the computer with an SCCM agent on it, but Software Center refuses to cooperate - it throws errors and does nt open despite several troubleshooting attempts including re-installation of the agent. In this case the following commands might come in handy:

Usage:

    The following cmd command will help you to "see" the actionable patches list as displayed in the Software Center. The exemplary output of the comment is below:

ArticleID=4055532
EvaluationState=6
Name=2018-01 Security and Quality Rollup for .NET Framework 3.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1 on Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 for x64 (KB4055532)

ArticleID=890830
EvaluationState=6
Name=Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool x64 - February 2018 (KB890830)

ArticleID=4076492
EvaluationState=8
Name=2018-02 Security and Quality Rollup for .NET Framework 3.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1 on Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 for x64 (KB4076492)

ArticleID=4055269
EvaluationState=6
Name=2018-01 Security Only Update for .NET Framework 3.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1 on Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 for x64 (KB4055269)

    Below you can find a reference for available Evalutaion state (source: CCM_SoftwareUpdate Client WMI Class)

Value    State

0    ciJobStateNone
1    ciJobStateAvailable
2    ciJobStateSubmitted
3    ciJobStateDetecting
4    ciJobStatePreDownload
5    ciJobStateDownloading
6    ciJobStateWaitInstall
7    ciJobStateInstalling
8    ciJobStatePendingSoftReboot
9    ciJobStatePendingHardReboot
10    ciJobStateWaitReboot
11    ciJobStateVerifying
12    ciJobStateInstallComplete
13    ciJobStateError
14    ciJobStateWaitServiceWindow
15    ciJobStateWaitUserLogon
16    ciJobStateWaitUserLogoff
17    ciJobStateWaitJobUserLogon
18    ciJobStateWaitUserReconnect
19    ciJobStatePendingUserLogoff
20    ciJobStatePendingUpdate
21    ciJobStateWaitingRetry
22    ciJobStateWaitPresModeOff
23    ciJobStateWaitForOrchestration

Code:

wmic /namespace:\\root\ccm\ClientSDK path CCM_SoftwareUpdate WHERE ComplianceState='0'  GET Name,ArticleId,EvaluationState /format:list

Usage:

    The following cmdlets will force the installation of all actionable updates

Code:

$MissingUpdates = Get-WmiObject -Class CCM_SoftwareUpdate -Filter ComplianceState=0 -Namespace root\CCM\ClientSDK
$MissingUpdatesReformatted = @($MissingUpdates | ForEach-Object {IF($_.ComplianceState -eq 0){[WMI]$_.__PATH}})
$InstallReturn = Invoke-WmiMethod -Class CCM_SoftwareUpdatesManager -Name InstallUpdates -ArgumentList (,$MissingUpdatesReformatted) -Namespace root\ccm\ClientSDK