It is also possible to check if a particular update is installed by using the KB number as an argument. For example, the command Get-Hotfix KB4505903 will check if the KB4497932 is installed.

4 Ways To View And Save List Of Updates Installed On Windows 10

Normally, Windows Update does not require any administration. Microsoft is making it much like a set it and forget it tool. But some applications require specific hotfixes and updates installed on your computer before they can run. For example, some applications require a specific version of .NET Framework, Visual C++ redistributable or Java, etc. And some apps require hotfixes instead of add-ons.

In this article, we will discuss how to view a list of all the Windows updates installed on your computer, whether they are feature updates, hotfixes or quality updates. There are several ways of doing this. We will discuss some ways of viewing and saving the list of installed updates in Windows 10. Each method has its own advantages. You can use whichever is suitable for your specific requirement. If you are a network administrator, you should pay attention to the command-line and PowerShell methods as these can be used to extract data from remote computers as well.

So let’s start with the visual option first.

Using Windows Update History

1. Go to Windows Settings (Windows key + i)
2. Go to Update & Security
3. Select Windows Update from the left-hand menu and click on View update history link on the right-hand side.

View update history in Windows 10

This will show you all the updates installed on your Windows 10 computer. The updates are categorized into the following categories:

• Quality updates
• Driver updates
• Definition updates
• Other updates

The only caveat in using this method is you can’t search for a specific update. You will have to go through the list of updates manually.

Using Command-line options – DISM/SystemInfo

There are two commands which can be used to extract Windows updates information from the system. Let’s discuss them one by one.

Run the following command to get all information about each hotfix installed on your computer.

wmic qfe list full

You can also format the output as a table so that it is easy to read and comprehend.

wmic qfe list full /format:table

If full information is not required, you can use the following command to get the summary:

wmic qfe list brief

And if you want to find a specific hotfix, run the following command:

wmic qfe list brief | find “KB4495667”

To save the complete output in a file, run the following command:

wmic qfe list full /format:table > C:\Users\Usman\Desktop\WindowsUpdatesReport.html WMIC command to list installed Windows updates

SystemInfo

If you only want a list of KnowledgeBase updates numbers, then you can use the systeminfo command.

1. Open Command Prompt
2. Run the following command
   systeminfo | find “KB”
   

systeminfo hotfixes installed

Using PowerShell

Getting the same information which we got from command-line is easier in PowerShell.

1. Open PowerShell with administrative privileges
2. Run the following command:
   Get-Hotfix
   
3. This will list down all the hotfixes installed on the computer and also show the installation date of each hotfix.

PowerShell get hotfix

Using WinUpdatesList

WinUpdatesList is a third-party software which can be used for the same purpose. Since it is a portable tool, it can be run from a network location. The biggest advantage of using WinUpdatesList is that it will list down every update possible from Windows Updates, hotfixes, Windows Defender definition updates, .NET Framework updates, driver updates, etc. You can also save the update as CSV file. It will give you a lot of information about each update like its name, installation date, installed by (if you are on a domain network), update type, link to the hotfix page online, uninstall command (if available), last modified, etc.

I hope these methods will be informative for you and it will become easier for you to view and save the list of all the installed updates and hotfixes in Windows 10 and even earlier versions of Windows including Windows Server. Which method do you prefer for your specific need and why? Your comments below will be highly appreciated.

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Usman Khurshid is a seasoned IT Pro with over 15 years of experience in the IT industry. He has experience in everything from IT support, helpdesk, sysadmin, network admin, and cloud computing. He is also certified in Microsoft Technologies (MCTS and MCSA) and also Cisco Certified Professional in Routing and Switching. Reach him at Twitter @usmank11

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How to Check if a Windows Update (KB) is Installed on your Computer?

The Windows Update channel delivers all necessary updates suitable for your system. Most of the time, manual intervention is not required for installing updates. In some cases, especially during manual installation of an update using standalone installer, you may need to first check if a specific update (a prerequisite update) is installed on your system.

This article explains how to check if a specific Windows Update ( KBnnnnnn ) is installed in your computer or not.

Find if a Windows Update KB has been applied

How to Check if a Windows Update (KB) is Installed on your Computer

There are at least seven different methods to determine if an update is installed in the system.

Method 1: Check the Windows Update history

The modern Settings app has an option to view Windows update history. Here’s how to view it.

1. Open Settings and click Update & Security
2. Click View update history. The update history page shows the list of updates installed on your computer.
3. Scroll through the list and find the specific update ( KBnnnnnn ) you’re looking for.

Editor’s note: The update history page may fail to show some updates. In my computer, the update the Servicing Stack Update (SSU) KB4470788 was not listed in the update history page even though the update was installed a few months back.

Method 2: View installed updates in Programs and Features Control Panel

Using the “Programs and Features” applet in the Control Panel, you can find the list of installed updates.

1. Right-click Start, click Run.
2. Type appwiz.cpl and click OK. This opens the Programs and Features in the classic Control Panel.
3. Click View installed updates link in the left side. This shows you the list of updates along with the installation date column.

Note: In the classic Programs and Features applet, the Servicing Stack Update (SSU) KB4470788 is listed, and the install date showing up as Dec 07, 2018 . It appears that the “View update history” option in the modern Settings app and “Programs and Features” are using two different sources for finding the update history.

Method 3: Using DISM command

The built-in DISM tool can list out the installed Windows Update CBS packages. Follow these steps:

1. Open an administrator Command Prompt window.
2. Type the following command and press ENTER :

The output is redirected to clipboard (using | clip operator).

Note: The update Install Time shown by DISM may be in GMT.

Method 4: Run the KB update installer (.msu) file again.

Running the KB setup .msu again will tell you if the update has been already installed. Here is how to obtain the standalone installer from Microsoft Update Catalog and run the .msu setup file. Note that this method works for Windows update standalone installers .msu only. That is, this method doesn’t apply if you have the .cab version.

1. Visit the Windows Update Catalog
2. Download the update package ( .msu ) by mentioning the KB number.
3. Double-click the .msu file to run the setup. The Windows Update Standalone Installer (WUSA) searches for updates on your computer and determines if the update is already installed or not.

If it’s already installed, it shows the message saying “(KBnnnnnn) is already installed on this computer.”

Method 5: Using WinUpdatesList or WinUpdatesView utility from NirSoft

The WinUpdatesList utility ( wul.exe ) from Nirsoft displays the list of all Windows updates, including Service Packs and Hotfixes installed on your local computer. You can copy the list of updates to the clipboard, or save it to text/HTML/XML file in a single click. The following fields are shown for each update listed. We’ve covered WinUpdatesList in the article How to Print Your Windows Update History By Exporting to Text or HTML File?.

Note: The WinUpdatesList utility, however, did not list the Servicing Stack Update KB4470788 on my computer. Hope this tool works well in your case.

WinUpdatesView (Windows Updates History Viewer)

WinUpdatesView is a simple tool from Nirsoft that displays the history of Windows updates on your system. WinUpdatesView can load the Windows updates history from your local system, using API, and it can also read and parse the Windows updates database file ( DataStore.edb ) from an external drive or from a remote computer on your network.

Method 6: Using WMI command-line

From an admin Command Prompt, run:

It shows the list of updates installed along with the date of installation and other details.

Or Export to HTML file, using this syntax:

Or to list a specific update, run:

Alternately, you can run the command Get-Hotfix from a PowerShell window to get the same results.

You can sort the table by the InstalledOn column in descending order by running this command:

PowerShell’s Get-HotFix cmdlet also uses the WMI’s Win32_QuickFixEngineering (QFE) class as the WMIC CLI tool above. The output is exactly the same.

The systeminfo command from a Command Prompt window also lists the hotfixes installed. It again uses the WMI QFE class to query the list of hotfixes.

Method 7: Check the Windows Update CBS Registry Entries

For each update installed, a corresponding Component Based Servicing package registry entry is created. Using the Registry Editor, you can check whether a Windows update has been installed on your computer.

1. Start the Registry Editor ( regedit.exe )
2. Go to the following registry key:
3. Use the Find option under the Edit menu, and search for the key having the text 4470788 (to find KB4470788 related entries.)

If the key exists, you’re taken to the branch. In my case, as the update was already installed, the Find option led me to this key:
In the right-pane, check the value data for “CurrentState”. If the value data reads 0x00000070 (112) , it means that the update was successfully installed.

Here is the list of possible CurrentState registry values and their meaning:

Determine the install date & time of an update using registry

Each CBS Package key has two values namely InstallTimeLow & InstallTimeHigh . These keys, when decoded will show you the date and time the update was installed. However, we have a shortcut way to find the exact installation date and time the update was installed on your computer.

The trick is to export the Package branch to a .txt file (instead of .reg format) and read the timestamp mentioned in the file. We’ll find the installation date and time of update KB4470788 in this example.

1. In the Registry Editor, select the following ( KB4470788 ) key:
2. Right-click on the package key and click Export.
3. In this example, we’ll export the Package_1_for_KB4470788

17763.164.1.1 branch.

The last write time denotes the date and time the registry entry was created.

As you can see, the last write time in this example matches with the date and time we determined in Method 2 using “Programs and Features”.

That’s it! Hope this article helped you check if a specific Windows Update (KBnnnnnn) has been applied to your system or not.