I have a Windows Server 2016 (Standard) machine that i keep updated:
Turns out there are a lot of "Optional Updates" that never appear in Windows Update.
Today i happened to try Windows Admin Center, which creates a web-site on your machine that can then connect to different servers.
The Admin Center showed me that my servers have some years old Optional Updates that don't appear in Windows Update:
- Intel - Other hardware - Intel(R) Xeon(R) E3 - 1200/1500 v5/6th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) PCIe Controller (x16) - 1901
- Intel - Other hardware - Intel(R) Xeon(R) E3 - 1200/1500 v5/6th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) Gaussian Mixture Model - 1911
- Microsoft Silverlight (KB4481252)
- 2020-01 Update for Windows Server 2016 for x64-based Systems (KB4494175)
- SQL Server 2019 RTM Cumulative Update (CU) 4 KB4548597
Which brings the questions:
- Why is Windows Update not showing updates?
- How do i access updates in the Windows Server 2016 user interface?
- How do i access the old (functional) Windows Update in Windows Server 2016?
Bonus Chatter
Powershell script to display all updates that aren't installed:
Powershell script
Write-Output "Creating Microsoft.Update.Session COM object"
$session1 = New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.Update.Session -ErrorAction silentlycontinue
Write-Output "Creating Update searcher"
$searcher = $session1.CreateUpdateSearcher()
Write-Output "Searching for missing updates..."
$result = $searcher.Search("IsInstalled=0")
#Updates are waiting to be installed
$updates = $result.Updates;
Write-Output "Found $($updates.Count) updates!"
$updates | Format-Table Title, AutoSelectOnWebSites, IsDownloaded, IsHiden, IsInstalled, IsMandatory, IsPresent, AutoSelection, AutoDownload -AutoSize
pause
Example output:
Creating Microsoft.Update.Session COM object
Creating Update searcher
Searching for missing updates...
Found 6 updates!
Title AutoSelectOnWebSites IsDownloaded IsHiden IsInstalled IsMandatory IsPresent AutoSelection AutoDownload
----- -------------------- ------------ ------- ----------- ----------- --------- ------------- ------------
Intel - Other hardware - Intel(R) Xeon(R) E3 - 1200/1500 v5/6th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) PCIe Controller (x16) - 1901 False False False False False 0 0
Intel - Other hardware - Intel(R) Xeon(R) E3 - 1200/1500 v5/6th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) Gaussian Mixture Model - 1911 False False False False False 0 0
Microsoft Silverlight (KB4481252) False False False False False 0 0
2020-01 Update for Windows Server 2016 for x64-based Systems (KB4494175) False False False False False 1 2
SQL Server 2019 RTM Cumulative Update (CU) 4 KB4548597 False False False False False 0 0
Security Intelligence Update for Windows Defender Antivirus - KB2267602 (Version 1.315.200.0) True False False False True 0 0
