Viewing update history
Because updates are so important, Windows helps you keep track of
the updates that you’ve installed or attempted to install. In addition,
Windows provides the status of the installation, the importance level
of the update, and the date on which the update installation was
attempted. To access this information, tap or click View Update History
on the Windows Update screen. The View Update History window (see Figure 11)
displays the information. You can get full information about an update
by double-tapping or double-clicking the name of the update.
The information in the View
Update History window is invaluable for a number of reasons. First, as
an administrator, you can determine whether a particular update was
applied to a system.
Second, this information provides a significant boon in system troubleshooting. In Figure 11, you can see that one of the updates failed. This information enables you to begin taking steps to determine the cause of the failure.
The information provided as part of the update
history can help you if you find that you’ve deployed an update that
needs to be rolled back or otherwise removed from a system.
Although updates are tested, it’s not possible for Microsoft to test
an update against every possible hardware and software combination.
Therefore, on rare occasions, the company releases an update that
creates problems for some users. If this happens to you or your users,
you must take steps to remove problematic updates from Windows 8
systems to return systems to an operational state.
Updates can be uninstalled by using Programs And Features in Control
Panel. If you’re in Control Panel and you do not see a Programs And
Features option, click the down arrow next to the View By option and
choose either Large Icons or Small Icons.
This option is accessible from the View
Update History window by tapping or clicking the Installed Updates
link. Alternatively, you can access Programs And Features by opening
Control Panel and tapping or clicking View Installed Updates in the
left navigation area. The resulting Installed Updates window is shown
in Figure 12.
Each listed update has the Microsoft
Knowledge Base article ID listed with it. This makes it easier for you
to ensure that you’re removing the correct update. You can use the
search box in the upper-right corner of the window to search for an
update you want to remove.
To uninstall an update, select the update and then tap or click
Uninstall or press and hold or right-click the update and choose
Uninstall from the shortcut menu. Windows asks you whether you’re sure
you want to uninstall the update. Tap or click Yes to continue.
Depending on the update you select, you might have to restart the
computer.
After an update has been uninstalled, that update will show up as a required installation the next time you check for new updates.
After all, the purpose of Windows Update is to find missing updates.
After you remove an update, it’s considered missing.
This can be fixed. When you find your list of updates that are
available to install in Windows Update, you can hide updates that you
want to skip so that they aren’t made available for installation. To
hide an update, press and hold or right-click the update and then tap
or click Hide Update, as shown in Figure 13. From now on, the update will not be made available for installation.
If you need to install a previously hidden update, tap or click Restore Hidden Updates on the Windows Update screen. When the Restore Hidden Updates window (Figure 14) opens, select the updates you’d like to restore and then tap or click the Restore button.
Configuring Windows Update policies
Unless you decide to configure every PC in your organization to download and install new updates
automatically, the update process could become difficult to administer;
for example, if you need to block a bad update from being installed in
the environment.
This situation becomes more apparent in larger organizations,
especially those with custom applications or diverse hardware. When an
update breaks something, it becomes clear that policies can be helpful
to block driver updates without prior administrator approval or block
library updates until they have been tested against the custom app.
Further, bandwidth becomes an issue in larger organizations.
Suppose, for example, that 500 desktops all try to download a service
pack on the same day; the network would slow to a crawl or go offline
entirely. By using centralized Group Policy and tying Windows Update to
a centralized Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) server, both of these challenges can be averted.
WSUS provides
for a single update download from Microsoft, which is then distributed
to workstations over the internal network rather than over the
Internet. In addition, WSUS provides highly granular control over the
distribution of updates to ensure that the administrator has full
control of the process.
WSUS is generally combined with a series of Group Policy
settings. So, rather than working with Windows Update on a
computer-by-computer basis, you can manage every computer’s Windows
Update settings from one place.
