Remotely Pushing Windows Updates via Command Line to Windows 10 Machines

Normally, windows updates are pushed to machines using Configuration Manager in an enterprise environment. There are occasions though when they must manually be pushed, such as when a system continues to fail via ConfigMgr and troubleshooting is required. The first tool I use is the PSWindowsUpdate PowerShell module. This allows me to remotely push updates via PowerShell and PSEXEC, in which I can watch the results. 

To use the PSWindowsUpdate module, it must be installed first. I do so by installing the module on all machines during the build process, but it can also be pushed through ConfigMgr or you can use PSEXEC.exe to install it. The command line I use is:

 powershell.exe -executionpolicy bypass -command "&{Install-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate -Force -Confirm:$false}"  

Once it is installed on the remote machine, I use the following PowerShell one-liner in the configuration manager Scripts section to remotely execute it. 

 Install-WindowsUpdate -IgnoreReboot -AcceptAll;Start-Process -FilePath ($env:windir + '\system32\UsoClient.exe') -ArgumentList 'ScanInstallWait StartInstall'  

The issue I have seen with just using the PSWindowsUpdate module with 1903 and later versions of Windows 10 is that it will trigger the updates to download, but will not always install them, especially feature updates. The UsoClient.exe will trigger the updates to install. This command-line executable is the same as going to the Check for Windows Updates screen and clicking the button to install updates. You can find more info on UsoClient here. 

If you are trying to get a feature update to install remotely, you will need to execute UsoClient.exe ScanInstallWait StartInstall at least a couple of times before it starts to install after the update has been downloaded.