List all hotfixes applied to windows server

Question

There used to be a command line tool called QFECheck in Windows Server 2000 that would list them out. Is this the preferred method on windows server 2003/2008?

I know they're listed in Add/Remove programs, but it's hard to capture them for an audit this way.

Can i do this without having to install an add-on executable?

score 12 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 24 '15 at 04:14

12

The following command(s) work in both the 'regular' command prompt and PowerShell, also for both Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008:

wmic qfe get Hotfixid

to find if a specific update was installed:

wmic qfe | find "123456"

It however does not provide any office updates (unfortunately), thought it's relatively easy now to just go to 'installed updates' and do a search for it... same as Windows updates, but the question specified it needed to be done from a command prompt.

Powershell only command:

Get-Hotfix -id kb123456

edited Apr 24 '15 at 04:14

Nick Kavadias

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answered May 20 '10 at 20:57

l0c0b0x

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+1 Can't believe I've never seen that tool.... – squillman May 20 '10 at 21:21
I know the question is about Server but just to add - It seems to work on Win7 but on XP it returned a whole lot of unrelated garbage, such as about 50 repetitions of "File 1" and random text such as "NLSDownlevelMapping". – John Gardeniers May 20 '10 at 21:56
I just stumbled upon it by trying to figure out more about 'quick fix engineering', after finding this command online: Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from win32_quickfixengineering' | foreach {$_.hotfixid} – l0c0b0x May 20 '10 at 21:59
Actually, I did notice the 'file 1' junk on win 2003... but the list of KBs was still accurate. – l0c0b0x May 20 '10 at 22:03
so awesome i changed you to the correct answer! – Nick Kavadias May 21 '10 at 02:46
@Nick: Yeah, I don't blame you on that one :) – squillman May 21 '10 at 12:22

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 29 '09 at 01:33

3

You can do it with Powershell:

Get-ChildItem -Path “HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\HotFix”

answered Sep 29 '09 at 01:33

squillman

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I think your using powershell here to rub it in a bit, but that registry key is golden – Nick Kavadias Oct 05 '09 at 16:35
Nah, not rubbing it in. But, yeah, you admittedly could use any command-line reg tool. – squillman Oct 05 '09 at 16:42
this only works on 2003... I just posted a command that works for both server 2003 and 2008. – l0c0b0x May 20 '10 at 20:57

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 27 '12 at 18:23

2

PowerShell now includes the Get-HotFix command which is far easier to remember.

answered Mar 27 '12 at 18:23

MikeyB

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score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 07 '09 at 15:25

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they are also listed under the windows directory.

answered Oct 07 '09 at 15:25

Nasa

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List all hotfixes applied to windows server

4 Answers4