start-wuscan cmdlet is not avialble to run on few Windows 10

Question

Hi,

We have few PCs where start-wuscan PowerShell cmdlet is not available to run. These PCs run 1909, 20H1, 20H2 builds. Wondering how is this cmdlet got broken or missing, and second how to restore it back ?

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> start-wuscan
start-wuscan : The term 'start-wuscan' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a
path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At line:1 char:1

• start-wuscan
• ~~~~~~~~~~~~
• CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (start-wuscan:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
• FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException

Answer 1

Please bring back the "WindowsUpdateProvider" module

Answer 2

The module is removed in version 2004 (20H1), and thus 20H2 too
https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/windows-powershell-docs/issues/139#issuecomment-648125918

you either have to rely on the manual commands to run the scan
e.g.

$Session = new-object -com "Microsoft.Update.Session"
$ctr = "(IsInstalled=0 and DeploymentAction=*) or (IsInstalled=1 and DeploymentAction=*) or (IsHidden=1 and DeploymentAction=*)"
$Result = $Session.CreateupdateSearcher().Search($ctr).Updates
$Result | Select Title,Identity,IsHidden,LastDeploymentChangeTime,KBArticleIDs | Format-List -Property Title,@{l='UpdateID';e={$_.Identity.UpdateID}},@{l='PublishedDate';e={$_.LastDeploymentChangeTime.ToString('yyyy-MM-dd')}},@{l='KBArticle';e={$_.KBArticleIDs}},IsHidden

or install external module PSWindowsUpdate

Install-PackageProvider -Name NuGet -Force
Set-PSRepository -Name PSGallery -InstallationPolicy Trusted
Install-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate

Answer 3

Check your $env:PSModulePath and verify that it contains C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules

Verify that this file exists: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\WindowsUpdateProvider\WindowsUpdateProvider.psd1

(get-module -ListAvailable windowsupdateprov*).path
(get-module -ListAvailable windowsupdateprov*).ExportedCommands

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> (get-module -ListAvailable windowsupdateprov*).path
C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\WindowsUpdateProvider\WindowsUpdateProvider.psd1
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> (get-module -ListAvailable windowsupdateprov*).ExportedCommands

Key Value

---

Get-WUAVersion Get-WUAVersion
Get-WULastInstallationDate Get-WULastInstallationDate
Get-WULastScanSuccessDate Get-WULastScanSuccessDate
Get-WUIsPendingReboot Get-WUIsPendingReboot
Install-WUUpdates Install-WUUpdates
Start-WUScan Start-WUScan

Answer 4

Hi，

Check if the module WindowsUpdateProvider and the file C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\WindowsUpdateProvider\WindowsUpdateProvider.psd1 exist. If yes, please help to post the contents of the psd1 file.

Best Regards，
Ian Xue

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