XP alternative for “wmic”, to get updates list

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Doc.AElstein
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XP alternative for “wmic”, to get updates list

Post by Doc.AElstein »

Hi,
I was wanting do something similar to this:
http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic. ... 82#p222044" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://tinyurl.com/y9a63mc3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That is to say, I am wanting to get a listing of all the updates on a computer.
At those above links I was previously looking at some computers with Vista and Windows 7 Operating systems.
But now I have been trying to do something similar yesterday and today on some old LG X120 Notebooks which have Operating system XP.

That previous solution is not working for me on my XP machines.
I have spent some time looking on the internet and it appears that things like the “wmic” (Windows Management Instrumentation … class .. ??? thing) is often not available to XP ( I have the standard XP I think – It is possible that it might be available on better “Pro” versions of XP that I don’t have )

Questions
Question 1
Does anyone know of an alternative way to get a list of all the updates , ideally into a text file or similar. ( For an XP machine)

Question 2
Is there anyway to add whatever it is that is missing so that I can get the wmic type things to work on my XP machines. I have read that XP Pro has the “wmic” (Windows Management Instrumentation … class .. ??? thing

Thanks
Alan

P.S. I am seeing some information on something called “Getting WMI Objects (Get-WmiObject)” , but all the information is in languages that I don’t understand.
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John Gray
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Re: XP alternative for “wmic”, to get updates list

Post by John Gray »

Try
MSinfo32 /report unicode.txt
type unicode.txt > ascii.txt


XP allowed a whole bunch more parameters for msinfo32 than subsequent Windows operating systems, but you can always edit the ascii.txt output.

BTW msinfo32 take a long time, maybe three minutes or more!
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Re: XP alternative for “wmic”, to get updates list

Post by Doc.AElstein »

Hi John,
Thanks for the reply

I just tried on an XP machine of mine and it doesn’t recognise the “MSinfo32” command
( I also tried it just for comparison on a Vista and Windows 7 machine and it does seem to do something on them )
MSinfo32 on Vista.JPG : https://imgur.com/5JYCDFU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; )
Thanks anyway

Alan
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stuck
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Re: XP alternative for “wmic”, to get updates list

Post by stuck »

Doc.AElstein wrote:Question 2
Is there anyway to add whatever it is that is missing...
Surely all you need to do is open the Control Panel and use Windows Update? That will find and offer you any missing updates.

Unless of course MS have turned off the XP update servers but I don't think they have.

Ken

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Re: XP alternative for “wmic”, to get updates list

Post by Doc.AElstein »

Hi Ken,
Thanks for the reply.
The problem is not a missing update. ( well not directly anyway – it might be that an update might solve the problem , but so far none of my googling has suggested that yet…)

What I want to do is….
I am trying to get a list ( preferably in a simple text file ) of all updates on a computer. I was already able to do that successfully for Vista and Windows 7 machines / http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic. ... 82#p222044" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; )
_._____________________________________________
I probably did not explain question 2 so well

The problem is that it appears that Operating system Vista, Windows 7 ( and I expect Windows 10 ) and XP Pro have “something” which means that, amounts other things, commends like “wmic” work in the command window.
Normal XP Home which I have does not have this “something” . Don’t ask me what that “something” is. I don’t know. But without it the “wmic” stuff don’t work.
Question 2 was asking if anyone knew how to get that missing “something

I did find and downloaded on an XP machine Windows Management Framework, as googling suggested that might be useful for things like I want to do , but I don’t know what to do with it. I restarted after the download and checked to see if things like wmic or MSinfo32 were then recognised in the commend window, but they weren’t

_.___________________

Anyway, I have been at it all day, and now I do have a very long winded way to do it. It works well on any operating system . But it is a bit long and complicated.
I will try and get an explanation as simple I can on the solution, and then post that later

Thanks for the interest.

Alan
_......

P.s.
stuck wrote:.Unless of course MS have turned off the XP update servers but I don't think they have....
whilst googling around today I came across places that said something along the lines that MS haven’t turned off the XP update servers yet. But I don’t know if that is still the case. Some people said it was going to be there until about 2019
That might help me if it still is on, as later, once I get my lists from different XP computers I will be chopping and changing what updates I have, as what updates I have seem to be influencing what does and doesn’t work on my XP machines … but that’s the next long story… it involves things that some updates kill, so its not just a simple case of getting all updates possible.. People smarter than me tell me that is never a good idea with older Operating systems as you can never be sure what older updates might do... It looks like out of about 10 identical XP machines I have, I only have one that is not being badly effected by updates - the one that works has the least updates.. so eventually i will be probably removing updates. ... The purpose of the current excesise is to get a way to get lists to compare
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Re: XP alternative for “wmic”, to get updates list

Post by Doc.AElstein »

Hi
I have found a solution to this problem now. So I thought I would mention it in passing for the benefit of anyone else catching this Thread wanting to get a list of all there updates in XP ( or in any other operating system )

The main part of the solution is a free software I found : https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wul.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But I went on and have started to customise it a bit, as I need to be able to get all my updates lists and details from a different computers and compare them , manipulate them etc..

Briefly :- The software has an option to produce a HTML file , which when you try it, it makes that file, …but at the same time something magic occurs… some how the list of all the updates on your computer magically appear in a new tab on your browser, if you have it open.
I found that scary and eerie.
So I did something….
I have written some coding which
_ catches that html internet string thing
_ feeds it into one of those “html Doc things
_ Uses the properties of a “html Doc thing” object to get the information about the Updates which I want into an Excel worksheet.
_._________
I expect I may optimise and customise it a bit more after I have used it “in anger” in the next few days..

_.________________________________________

Its all as unnecessarily complicated as anything I ever do.
I made myself a lot of notes, and shared them here:
https://tinyurl.com/y78ll95q" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
( http://www.excelfox.com/forum/showthrea ... #post10893 )
So there is a full description of the solutions and codes there.

Alan
_.________________________________________________________________________________________________

Edit 23 Jan 2019: Some observations
Operating Systems : Vista and Win 7:
The list produced by the software from Nir Sofer appears to give a complete list of all updates ever installed on the computer , and the date given is that of the first installation of that update. The List will get updated if new updates are installed. But the List does not change to reflect any removal of updates: Even after a restart following an update de instillation, the information inn the list previously relating to this update remains.
Operating System XP
As with Vista and Win 7, but with one annoying extra characteristic: No information about updates associated with Microsoft Office appear in the produced update list!!. ( I have mentioned this to the software author)

Alan
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Jay Freedman
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Re: XP alternative for “wmic”, to get updates list

Post by Jay Freedman »

Alan, are you able to run the Windows Update in Windows XP now?

I have a virtual machine that runs Windows XP SP 3. In the last few days, when I run Windows Update there, it gets as far as "Checking for new updates" and halts because the site (https://13.64.25.102" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) has a certificate that was revoked, according to Avast antivirus. Of course, Windows Update itself just says there's a "problem" with the updates.

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Re: XP alternative for “wmic”, to get updates list

Post by Doc.AElstein »

Hi Jay,
I finally reluctantly decided a few weeks ago to turn off updates on all my XP machines, ( and a few others operating system machines ) , as I could not keep up with the rate at which new updates for Office 2010 where killing XP, ( as well as other updates constantly killing ActiveX embedded in a worksheet controls in Excel 2003 in all operating systems )
( https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mso ... #LastReply" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic. ... 05#p244958" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Fo ... 9ac441b3bb" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/291 ... 4#54350074" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
)
But I am not using most of the XP machines currently so I will turn updates on one of them back on and let you know what happens
So as to not risk adding another thing into the equation I won’t attempt to change anything else like the update time , so it should try to update tomorrow at 3.00pm my German time , ( It is about 11.15 p.m Thursday here as I write this, - I am guessing that you are 6 hours behind me, so I will let you know at some time after 9.00a.m. your time, which is when I should expect to get “hit” with updates )
I will let you know what happens.
Before I turned off updates on that machine , it regularly got a large amount of updates at that time every day without fail
I will leave the machine on from now, as I am not sure if in the past it had ever tried to do anything to do with updates other than at about 3.00 p.m. in the afternoon

Alan
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Re: XP alternative for “wmic”, to get updates list

Post by Doc.AElstein »

Hi Jay,
Unfortunately I had to pop out unexpectedly just before the clock hit 3.00 pm German time, ( I think 9.00 am in the morning for you if you are in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania )
It appears that I have got a lot of updates including all those that kill things. I will go through exactly what I have later, and as usual, check for the bad Updates and remove them. Then I will let the computer run and see if the same happens tomorrow.. ( I am not sure if the computer had those updates “stored” somehow, and so added them from there. I still am not 100% clear on how these things work. )
( By the way, during my experiments on updates I found that any shown dates for when updates were installed was inconstant and inaccurate. )

I should also say that there is a small chance that I had not cleared previously the bad updates on this particular XP machine after turning off updates. I thought I had cleared all of them, but this one NoteBook was under other stuff on my desk and may have been overlooked it.

Just now I don’t have access to my other XP machines: My wife has been using them abroad for a few weeks. But I am sure that I both cleared the bad updates and turned off updates on those. I am sure of this, because she has been using them successfully. It would have almost certainly not have been possible for her to use those machines successfully if she had received any updates, because my experience is that one or more updates would most certainly have killed most of the things she uses.
When she comes back in a few days I will perhaps turn back on updates on one or more of those machines and see what happens

Let me know if you want me to do anything else with the machine(s) regarding Updates.
( But please remember that you will need to give me idiot proof full instructions on what to do – My entire computer knowledge is based on knowing quite well a very small part of Excel VBA. As Excel VBA is an extremely small part of all computer stuff, then that sets my computer knowledge as infinitely small/ Miniscule. )

Alan

P.s. I just dug up another XP machine, I appear to have turned off updates on that and all is “working” , so I expect that has had no updates in the last few weeks ( It was not connected to the internet in this time, and also i think not switched on at all ). I could turn on updates on that and see what happens. …? … Currently that XP machine is set to up date at 3.00 a.m. early tomorrow morning my German Time ( 9.00 P.m. tonight your time) ……

_.____________________-

Edit 8.00pm German time 15th Feb: I have just looked thoroughly at the updates on the machine which I turned back on updates last night. I find that it has 10 new updates which none of my XP machines have ever had. Further investigation revealed that one is a new “bad” update to kill XP. This tends to suggest to me that updates are working for me currently.
Also reports today here https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mso ... 543f1c19c0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; suggest that XP updates are working normally for at least one other person
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Re: XP alternative for “wmic”, to get updates list

Post by Doc.AElstein »

Hi
A quick update..( for Jay )
The Old XP Machine I dug up yesterday and connected to the Internet: ( the one with not much on it in terms of updates https://imgur.com/Gr2jwLW" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; .. ) ..Theoretically it should have been hit with a massive amount of updates at 3.00 a.m. this morning. It does not appear to have been. Strange, perhaps, but no conclusive conclusions from that as I have never done much with that machine so I don’t know its characteristics… ( I checked again and it does seem to be set to get updates….. https://imgur.com/33wuTGw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; )

Results for that machine which I switched back on the updates the day before yesterday, ( The one that for a long time was regularly updated at 3.00p.m. in the afternoon ) . I was in today and watched it as the clock turned 3.00 p.m. today.. I had never watched this before. In the past it seemed to have regularly updated but I had never actually watched it. …
What happened was:.. A little pop up came up at exactly 3.00 p.m. . It said that it had a couple of updates, I clicked on it, then agreed to it updating 1 littlePopUp 2 ExpressUpdates.jpg : https://imgur.com/cMTvbrv" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; , AgreeToUpdate.jpg : https://imgur.com/hv0VtPw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The result was that it seemed to have updated, (…. one update killed the ActiveX embedded in a worksheet controls in Excel 2003, the other killed Office 2010 in XP )
That is pretty similar to what had usually happened in the past.
I de installed those 2 updates, and then all was OK again

So…
I would say for now, Jay, to answer your original question ( http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic. ... 60#p246526" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) , that updates in XP are currently working normally for me . I will check my wife’s machines now that she is home sometime over the next two days. But I will only bother to post here again if I notice anything unusual in terms of the things regularly updating ..

( After that I will probably turn off updates again. … )

Alan
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Re: XP alternative for “wmic”, to get updates list

Post by Jay Freedman »

Instead of turning off all updates for XP, you could just hide the ones that cause trouble. Choose the Custom installation (Benutzerdefinierte) rather than the Express one, and click the link to see the list of updates being offered. If it includes one that you've previously had to uninstall, right-click it and choose to Hide it. Then that update won't be offered again (unless you choose to unhide it later).

If any of your XP computers are still connected to the internet, I'd be very concerned about not receiving whatever security updates Microsoft is still willing to supply for what's considered to be a "dead" operating system. I keep one virtual machine on XP only because I occasionally need access to Office 2000 -- I seem to be the only person in the forums who still has the Unbind program from the old Binder software. The only times that virtual machine is turned on are when I'm using Unbind or when I'm manually checking for updates.

By the way, I did manage to get Windows Update to run by (a) temporarily uninstalling the antivirus program and (b) unchecking the box in Internet Explorer's options dialog about checking for revoked site certificates. Immediately afterward I reinstalled the antivirus.

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Re: XP alternative for “wmic”, to get updates list

Post by Doc.AElstein »

Jay Freedman wrote:Instead of turning off all updates for XP, you could ... Choose the Custom installation (Benutzerdefinierte) ....
Hi Jay
Yes, I should try that Custom installation /Benutzerdefinierte some time.
I had been letting my machines initially do what they had already been doing, and looking out of interest at how the large update list changed.

It is a shame that the software I found that automatically lists all updates has the peculiar characteristic of not listing Office Updates in XP. I suppose that is a good proof for the validity of Sod’s law, since those updates are the ones that have been of the most interest to me. If it was not for that awkward characteristic then I could happily let all my XP machines get all updates in as I have automated with VBA going through lists and telling me where I have “bad” ones.

I let all my Window 7 and Vista machines get all updates.
Then if, for example, I need ActiveX embedded in a worksheet controls in Excel 2003 at any time, then I run my coding that looks through all the updates and then tells me which of the “ActiveX embedded in a worksheet controls in Excel 2003 killing” updates have crept in since the last time I looked.
If after then removing those “bad” updates all is working, then any remaining new updates are added to a “good” update list. That way it is relatively easy to narrow down the search for any new “bad” updates that kill things

Using the Custom installation /Benutzerdefinierte way of doing things is probably just as good….. I will try it soon I expect. I have seen it mentioned. As you have suggested it to me then I will probably give it a try soon.

Alan

P.S.
By the way, as I thought I understood it, it is not a case of “ Microsoft is still willing to supply for what's considered to be a "dead" operating system
All the list of updates I have been making over the past few months for my Vista and XP machines , so far have ever only shown any changes for Office 2010 related things. I assumed they are operating system independent? My assumption was that these updates for Office are checked on the supported operating systems for as far back as Windows 7. But they are picked up by any machine having Office 2010 regardless of the operating system.

Who ever is writing these updates still does not know about, or knows but does not care about , that the third entry point GetDateFormatEx does not exist in XP. – Since we discussed this last December ( http://www.eileenslounge.com/viewtopic. ... 05#p243097" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) , at least three more recent updates kill Office 2010 in XP for this same reason. The last was dropped on us a couple of days ago.
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