Filter Option
/classification <codes>
Filters results by update classification. Combine letter codes freely to select multiple classifications:
Code | Classification | Description |
C | Critical Updates | Broadly released fixes for critical non-security bugs |
U | Updates | Broadly released fixes for non-critical, non-security bugs |
R | Update Rollups | Cumulative packages of hotfixes, security and critical updates |
S | Security Updates | Broadly released fixes addressing security vulnerabilities |
E | Service Packs | Cumulative sets of all updates since product release, may include design changes |
F | Feature Packs | New feature releases, typically rolled into the next product version |
D | Definition Updates | Virus or other definition file updates |
A | Upgrades | Major OS upgrades (e.g. Windows 11 22H2) |
wuinstall /search /criteria "IsInstalled=1" /classification CRSE
/severity <codes>
Filters results by severity level. Applies to security updates only — non-security updates carry severity Unknown. Combine letter codes to select multiple levels:
Code | Severity | Description |
C | Critical | Exploitable without user action (e.g. wormable vulnerabilities) |
I | Important | Risk to data confidentiality, integrity, or availability |
M | Moderate | Impact significantly reduced by default config or difficulty of exploitation |
L | Low | Extremely difficult to exploit or minimal impact |
U | Unknown | All non-security updates |
wuinstall /search /severity CIU # critical, important, and unknown
/product "product_name"
Filters results to a specific product. The product name must be an exact match — no wildcards. Only one product can be specified per call.
wuinstall /search /criteria "IsInstalled=1" /product "Forefront Client Security"
/noproduct "product_name"
Inverse of /product — excludes all updates belonging to the specified product.
/match "string|regex"
Includes only updates whose titles match the specified string. In WuInstall Pro, full regular expressions are supported.
wuinstall /search /match "KB890830"
wuinstall /search /match "(Language|KB93|Internet Explorer)" # Pro: regex OR
/nomatch "string|regex"
Inverse of /match — excludes updates whose titles match the given string or pattern. Can be combined with /match:
wuinstall /search /match "(SQL|Office)" /nomatch "(KB|Microsoft)"
For a regex reference see this guide.
/matchfile <path>
Applies multiple match expressions from a file (one per line). An update is included if it matches at least one entry. Regular expressions are supported.
# C:\updateList.txt
KB963671
KB975467
.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Security
Security State Assessment 1.0
wuinstall /search /matchfile "C:\updateList.txt"
Useful for maintaining a central rollout list on a shared network drive. Supported encodings: UTF-8, ANSI, DOS. UTF-16 is not supported.
/nomatchfile <path>
Inverse of /matchfile — excludes any update matching at least one entry in the file.
wuinstall /search /nomatchfile "C:\exclude.txt"
/isdownloaded 1|0
Filters by local cache status. Use /isdownloaded 1 to install only updates already present in the local cache:
wuinstall /install /isdownloaded 1
Note: Manually deleting files from Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download may cause this filter to behave unexpectedly — deleted updates may still be reported as downloaded./releasedate [lt|eq|gt]:<YYYY-MM-DD> or /releasedate <+/-Days>
Filters updates by release date. Two usage modes:
Absolute date:
wuinstall /search /releasedate lt:2022-05-06 # released before May 6 2022
wuinstall /search /releasedate gt:2022-01-01 # released after Jan 1 2022
Relative days:
wuinstall /search /releasedate +10 # updates 10 days old or older
wuinstall /search /releasedate -10 # updates released within the last 10 days
/maxUpdateCount <number>
Caps the number of updates processed in a single WuInstall call. If more updates are available than the specified limit, only the first n are handled.
/updateSize [lt|gt]:<size> or bt:<min>-<max>
Filters updates by download size. Supported units: KB, MB, GB.
wuinstall /search /updateSize lt:50MB # smaller than 50 MB
wuinstall /search /updateSize bt:10MB-200MB # between 10 MB and 200 MB
/maxTotalSize <size>
Sets a cumulative size cap across all updates in the result list. WuInstall iterates through the list and stops including updates once the accumulated size exceeds the limit.
/query_history
Appends a full history of previously installed updates to the XML output file. Has no effect if /xmlout is not also specified.