View Windows Update History in Windows 10  

Steve C said:

See Nothing Listed in Update History

My update list was blank after turning off/on metered connection. Is this normal? Four updates have since come through and appear on the list.

Hello Steve, :)

I've noticed that the update history clears itself after each new build release.

As a test in build 16188, I toggled my Ethernet connection on/off as metered, but it didn't clear my update history.

Hello Steve,

You could reset Windows Update, but it will clear its history instead of restoring it.

Does running the wmic qfe list command for hotfixes in an elevated command prompt list any of them?

It's possible if it deleted registry keys/values.

Following a reset to the Windows Update in my system, I ended up with an empty Windows Update History.

Using Option One of the tutorial, I get an empty Settings “View update history” screen.
Using Option Two, it only shows updates that can be uninstalled and of course no update history of the Windows Apps (UWP) and no Windows Defender history.

There are a couple of things, that must be clarified regarding Windows Update history.

• Update history is cleared after installation of a Feature Update.
• Windows keeps the history in its own database files, located in %windir%\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore
• Every Windows Update creates an event, which is stored in the Event logs of the system.

Having those in mind, I tried to retrieve the history from the Event logs of the system, since the Windows update history kept in %windir%\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore was wiped out as a result of the forced reset.

So I created a Custom view, based on the idea/suggestion of @Cliff S

WindowsUpdateCustomView.zip

This custom View can be opened in Event Viewer, to see all installed updates.
The difference with this new Custom View (as opposed to the one proposed by Cliff) is that it is a lot more compact, as it uses a different event log and shows only the succeeded installations of the updates, including the Windows store Apps.

Taking it a step further, based on that custom view, I created a PowerShell script to produce a list of all created updates, sorted by KB number in one screen, so you don’t have to go looking for updates one by one, as it’s done in the Event Viewer.

Get-InstalledUpdates.ps1

1. Download and Save the script file to your desktop.
2. To unblock the file, Right click on the script file, and click on Properties. In the General tab, check the Unblock box at the bottom, and click on OK.
3. Open PowerShell as Administrator
4. Type the command:
   Code:

   Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process

5. To get a list of all installed updates, type the command:
   Code:

   .\Get-InstalledUpdates.ps1

6. If you want to save the output for future use, type the command:
   Code:

   .\Get-InstalledUpdates.ps1 | Out-File .\InstalledUpdates.txt

   That command will create a txt file on your Desktop with all the installed updates.

The script has one prerequisite. That your “System” events log has not been cleared, since the last Feature Update. If it is, then both the Custom view and the PowerShell script will show the updates installed from the last event log cleanup!

To make it more versatile, except from the Event logs, the script also looks in the Windows Update database files and presents the list of updates, either from the Event logs or from the Windows Update database, whichever contains the more detailed data .


It’s worth noting that the time in the Windows Update history is kept in UTC, whereas the time in the Windows Event logs is kept in your PC's local time, as shown in the following screenshot.



That’s it!
HTH someone.

Hello @ardj,

Personally, I only like referencing update history via Control Panel to see all of them.