HOWTO: Force (really) WSUS Clients to Check in on Demand

How long does it take you to run that command.. For me, it seems to be timing out..

I get a COM Error once it decides it’s enough..

My WSUS assets are not reporting back to wsus, and I get a time out. I opened all firewalls on the windows client/server for testing purpose, I can reach the webpage, but in the error message it says it failed to get a HTTP reply..
I’ve set my IIS to the best practices except that I followed the instruction saying I should leave it at 4GB Ram..

Man .. no idea what to do from here.

Awesome, that works! Thanks!
I didn’t have the problem with getting an error when creating the COM object. Here’s a minimal version assuming that that will work (and only using /reportnow):
Function Force-WSUSCheckin($Computer)
{
invoke-command -computername $Computer -scriptblock {
Start-Service wuauserv -Verbose
$updateSession = new-object -com “Microsoft.Update.Session”;
# More info about the Search method: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/api/wuapi/nf-wuapi-iupdatesearcher-search
$criteria = $null
$updateSession.CreateupdateSearcher().Search($criteria) | out-null
Write-host “Waiting 10 seconds for SyncUpdates webservice to complete to add to the wuauserv queue so that it can be reported on”
Start-sleep -seconds 10
Write-host “running wuauclt /reportnow …”
wuauclt /reportnow
}
}
And yes, you do need the null value in the Search($criteria) method.

Getting errors from psexec

psexec.exe : Exception from HRESULT: 0x8024401C
At C:\Temp\force-WSUSCheckin-from-list.ps1:9 char:4
+ & c:\temp\psexec.exe -s \\$Computer powershell.exe -ExecutionPolic …
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8024401C:String) [], RemoteException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : NativeCommandError

At line:1 char:59
+ … ate.Session;$updates=$updateSession.CreateupdateSearcher().Search($cr …
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : OperationStopped: (:) [], COMException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException

Connecting to MEWROYD01…Starting PSEXESVC service on MEWROYD01…Connecting with PsExec service on MEWROYD01…Starting
powershell.exe on MEWROYD01…
powershell.exe exited on MEWROYD01 with error code 1.

You are a good man Robbie….. Worked a treat.

This worked great! Thank you. Have been looking for this fix for many months.

This works for some but i wrote this batch file a couple years ago that works great too.

@echo on
net stop wuauserv
REG DELETE “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update” /v LastWaitTimeout /f
REG DELETE “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update” /v DetectionStartTime /f
Reg Delete “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update” /v NextDetectionTime /f
net start wuauserv
wuauclt /detectnow

Hope this helps

HelIo,
I try to launch in admin on some Windows 10 the command $updateSession = new-object -com “Microsoft.Update.Session”; $updates=$updateSession.CreateupdateSearcher().Search($criteria).Updates but most of the time there is no result no error and it doesnt back to the prompt. Any idea?
Thank you in advance

You’re a life-saver! Works like a charm! Solved a 2 year old mystery and now my WSUS looks like it’s freaking working again!

Great work, thank you for researching and posting!

hours of messing with WSUS and nothing. I run the command you suggested and it was all happy in 30 seconds. I wish i knew about this command earlier.

All i want to say is:

Thank You Very Very Much 🙂

message ends….

slight amendment, so I didnt have to use psexec.

$creds = Get-Credential

Function Force-WSUSCheckin($Computer)
{
Invoke-Command -computername $Computer -scriptblock { Start-Service wuauserv -Verbose }

$Cmd = ‘$updateSession = new-object -com “Microsoft.Update.Session”;$updates=$updateSession.CreateupdateSearcher().Search($criteria).Updates’

Start-Process -Credential $creds powershell -ArgumentList “-Command & $Cmd”

Write-host “Waiting 10 seconds for SyncUpdates webservice to complete to add to the wuauserv queue so that it can be reported on”
Start-sleep -seconds 10
Invoke-Command -computername $Computer -scriptblock {
# Now that the system is told it CAN report in, run every permutation of commands to actually trigger the report in operation
wuauclt /detectnow
(New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.Update.AutoUpdate).DetectNow()
wuauclt /reportnow
}
}