Get a list of recently installed Windows updates via the command line

In a previous post I gave a DISM command to get a list of installed Windows Updates:

While useful that command has no option of filtering results based on some criteria. 

If you are on Windows 8 or above the Get-WindowsPackage cmdlet can be of use:

This gets me all updates installed in the last 15 days. 

Another alternative (on pre-Windows 8 machines) is good ol’ WMIC:

The above gives output similar to this:

For more details more switches can be used:

Result is:

This output also gives an idea of the criteria available. 

So how can I filter this output like I did with PowerShell? Easy – use WQL (WMIC Query Language). Inspired by a blog post I found (which I am sure I have referred to in the past too) either of the following will do the trick:

-or- 

And if you want to format the output with specific fields:

Which results in something along these lines:

This includes Updates, Hotfixes, and Security Updates. If you want to filter down further, that too is possible (just mentioning these as a reference to my future self). Do a specific match:

Or a wildcard:

Or a negation:

These two links (WQL and WHERE clauses) were of use in picking up the WQL syntax. They are not very explanatory but you get an idea by trial and error. Once I had picked up the syntax I came across this about_WQL page that’s part of the PowerShell documentation and explains WQL operators. Linking to it here as a reference to myself and others. 

Unlike PowerShell I don’t know how to make WMIC use a greater than operator and simply specify the date. I tried something like this (updates installed after 12th May 2015):

But the results include some updates from 2013 & 2014 too. Not sure what’s wrong and I am not in the mood to troubleshoot at the moment. The like operator does the trick well for me currently.