Where to find available updates information in registry

[zmlm]

Hi,
I'm trying to write a program monitoring a remote Win 2000 server with
SP4 installed. I'd like to be able to get information about which
critical update I need to install when it's available, which basic is
the same information you will see when you click the icon on the
system tray. I look at the registry key,
HKLM\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\windowsupdate. I
couldnot find any information there. Some people mentinoed a registry
key, HKLM\software\microsoft\windowsupdate\critical update. There is
no such key in the computers I looked at. Dose anyone know a hint
about this information? Thanks.

[Miha Pihler]

Hi,

why don't you use already written tools like MBSA (Microsoft Baseline
Security Analyzer). It is a free download. It also check dll version of the
files not just presence of the registry keys. This is how Windows Update
used to work. It only looked for existence of registry keys and it reported
back that you are all up to date. Then you run MBSA and it reported back
that you are missing few patches...

You can scan whole domain, specific subnets or specific computers

You can get MBSA here:

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer v1.2 (for IT Professionals)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8b7a580d-0c91-45b7-91ba-fc47f7c3d6ad&DisplayLang=en

Beside looking for missing patches it will also report back any bad
configuration of the servers and/or clients.

Mike

Post by zmlm
Hi,
I'm trying to write a program monitoring a remote Win 2000 server with
SP4 installed. I'd like to be able to get information about which
critical update I need to install when it's available, which basic is
the same information you will see when you click the icon on the
system tray. I look at the registry key,
HKLM\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\windowsupdate. I
couldnot find any information there. Some people mentinoed a registry
key, HKLM\software\microsoft\windowsupdate\critical update. There is
no such key in the computers I looked at. Dose anyone know a hint
about this information? Thanks.

[zmlm]

Thanks Miha. My first thought is to write the script as simple as
possible. I have the MBSA installed. It will creat a XML report file.
The script language I use don't have XML parsing capability. It will
be great if I can find those registry keys, otherwise I have to give
it up. Thanks.

Post by Miha Pihler
Hi,
why don't you use already written tools like MBSA (Microsoft Baseline
Security Analyzer). It is a free download. It also check dll version of the
files not just presence of the registry keys. This is how Windows Update
used to work. It only looked for existence of registry keys and it reported
back that you are all up to date. Then you run MBSA and it reported back
that you are missing few patches...
You can scan whole domain, specific subnets or specific computers
Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer v1.2 (for IT Professionals)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8b7a580d-0c91-45b7-91ba-fc47f7c3d6ad&DisplayLang=en
Beside looking for missing patches it will also report back any bad
configuration of the servers and/or clients.
Mike

Post by zmlm
Hi,
I'm trying to write a program monitoring a remote Win 2000 server with
SP4 installed. I'd like to be able to get information about which
critical update I need to install when it's available, which basic is
the same information you will see when you click the icon on the
system tray. I look at the registry key,
HKLM\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\windowsupdate. I
couldnot find any information there. Some people mentinoed a registry
key, HKLM\software\microsoft\windowsupdate\critical update. There is
no such key in the computers I looked at. Dose anyone know a hint
about this information? Thanks.

[Chris Ard [MSFT]]

The "Details" button when you get the popup in the system tray does not
pull data from the registry, it is pulling information from an xml file
that is generated in the C:\Program Files\WindowsUpdate folder. There are
registry keys that will tell you which updates have been installed (ie.
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall), but there are no
registry entries created that tell you which updates are missing.

Chris Ard
Security Support
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[zmlm]

Thanks Chris. This really helps me a lot. From what I observed there
will be a details.xml only when there are critical updates available.
That also mean there are only critical updates information in the
details.xml file. Am I correct?

Post by Chris Ard [MSFT]
The "Details" button when you get the popup in the system tray does not
pull data from the registry, it is pulling information from an xml file
that is generated in the C:\Program Files\WindowsUpdate folder. There are
registry keys that will tell you which updates have been installed (ie.
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall), but there are no
registry entries created that tell you which updates are missing.
Chris Ard
Security Support
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--

[Chris Ard [MSFT]]

Yes. The details.xml file contains the details about the last detected
update. This is where the details about the specific updates referenced
in that system tray popup comes from. When you use SUS, SUS only pushes
out critical and security updates so that's all that will be referenced in
this file.

Chris Ard
Security Support
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.