Listing Patch History

[Glenn9999]

As someone may or may not know, you can look in the registry at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Updates and find a list of patches by KB number and file names spread among all the subkeys for some things for that main link.

So, I thought it might be interesting to try and aggregate the information. You can see an image of the final thing I came up with below:

I say "patch history on Windows XP" because I can't really say this works on anything else at the moment (haven't tested it, so I don't know, but you can always try it). As for Windows 95/98/ME, I could probably make it work there, but I can't see on my copy of Windows ME that there's much there to look at. So I stuck a check for an NT based operating system on this. I spot checked a few of the entries and all seems well.

Hopefully this might be useful to someone.

Highlights from the code for a Delphi programming example standpoint:

1) A rudimentary use of TTreeView.

2) Demonstrates recursion through the registry.

3) Demonstrates the use of TList and sorting.

unit updunit;

interface

uses
  Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Classes, Graphics, Controls, Forms, Dialogs,
  ComCtrls, StdCtrls, registry, ExtCtrls;

  type
    TForm1 = class(TForm)
      TreeView1: TTreeView;
    UpdBtn: TButton;
    SaveBtn: TButton;
    SaveDialog1: TSaveDialog;
    RadioGroup1: TRadioGroup;
    procedure UpdBtnClick(Sender: TObject);
    procedure SaveBtnClick(Sender: TObject);
    procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
    private
      { Private declarations }
    public
      { Public declarations }
    end;

type
  file_record = record
    package_name: string;
    filename: string;
  end;
  pfile_record = ^file_record;

var
  Form1: TForm1;
  file_value: TList;
  file_list: pfile_record;

implementation

{$R *.DFM}

  function os_is_nt: Boolean;
    { returns whether the OS is NT based or not }
    var
      osvinfo: TOsVersionInfo;
    begin
     { get windows version }
      osvinfo.dwOSVersionInfoSize := Sizeof(osvinfo);
      GetVersionEx(osvinfo);
      os_is_nt := (osvinfo.dwPlatformId = VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_NT);
    end;

  function get_pn(keyname: string): string;
    { parse out name of patch from registry entry }
    var
      filelist_pos: integer;
      i: integer;
    begin
      filelist_pos := pos('\Filelist', keyname);
      i := filelist_pos - 1;
      while keyname[i] <> '\' do dec(i);
      get_pn := copy(keyname, i+1, filelist_pos - i - 1);
    end;

  procedure recurse_list(keyname: string);
    { recurse through patch list, identify listed files }
    var
      appcheck: TRegistry;
      mainkeys: TStringList;
      mainvalues: TStringList;
      count1, count2: integer;
    begin
      appcheck := TRegistry.Create;
      appcheck.rootkey := HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE;
      if appcheck.openkey(keyname, false) then
        begin
          if pos('Filelist', keyname) > 0 then
            begin
              mainvalues := TStringList.Create;
              appcheck.getvaluenames(mainvalues);
              if mainvalues.count > 0 then
                begin
                  New(file_list);
                  file_list^.package_name := get_pn(keyname);
                  for count2 := 0 to mainvalues.count - 1 do
                    if mainvalues.strings[count2] = 'FileName' then
                      file_list^.filename := UpperCase(appcheck.ReadString('FileName'));
                  file_value.add(file_list);
                end;
              mainvalues.Destroy;
            end;
          mainkeys := TStringList.Create;
          appcheck.getkeynames(mainkeys);
          for count1 := 0 to mainkeys.count - 1 do
            recurse_list(keyname + '\' + mainkeys.strings[count1]);
          mainkeys.Destroy;
        end;
      appcheck.Destroy;
    end;

  function filename_sort(Item1, Item2: Pointer): integer;
    { -1 if Item 1 < Item 2
       0 if Item 1 = Item 2
       1 if Item 1 > Item 2 }
    var
      PItem1: pfile_record;
      PItem2: pfile_record;
    begin
      Result := 0;
      PItem1 := Item1;
      PItem2 := Item2;
      if PItem1^.Filename < PItem2^.Filename then
        begin
          result := -1; exit;
        end;
      if PItem1^.Filename > PItem2^.Filename then
        begin
          result := +1; exit;
        end;
      if PItem1^.Filename = PItem2^.Filename then
        begin
          if PItem1^.package_name < PItem2^.package_name then
            begin
              result := -1; exit;
            end;
          if PItem1^.package_name > Pitem2^.package_name then
            begin
              result := +1; exit;
            end;
          if PItem1^.package_name = Pitem2^.package_name then
            begin
              result := 0; exit;
            end;
        end;
    end;

  function packagename_sort(Item1, Item2: Pointer): integer;
    { -1 if Item 1 < Item 2
       0 if Item 1 = Item 2
       1 if Item 1 > Item 2 }
    var
      PItem1: pfile_record;
      PItem2: pfile_record;
    begin
      Result := 0;
      PItem1 := Item1;
      PItem2 := Item2;
      if PItem1^.package_name < PItem2^.package_name then
        begin
          result := -1; exit;
        end;
      if PItem1^.package_name > PItem2^.package_name then
        begin
          result := +1; exit;
        end;
      if PItem1^.package_name = PItem2^.package_name then
        begin
          if PItem1^.filename < PItem2^.Filename then
            begin
              result := -1; exit;
            end;
          if PItem1^.Filename > Pitem2^.Filename then
            begin
              result := +1; exit;
            end;
          if PItem1^.Filename = Pitem2^.Filename then
            begin
              result := 0; exit;
            end;
        end;
    end;

procedure TForm1.UpdBtnClick(Sender: TObject);
const
  updkey: string = 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Updates';
var
  tnode: TTreeNode;
  oldpname: string;
  cbvar: string;
  i: integer;
begin
  UpdBtn.Enabled := false;
  SaveBtn.Enabled := false;
  RadioGroup1.Enabled := false;
  TreeView1.Items.BeginUpdate;
  TreeView1.Items.Clear;
  file_value := TList.Create;
  recurse_list(updkey);
  case RadioGroup1.ItemIndex of
    0: file_value.sort(packagename_sort);
    1: file_value.sort(filename_sort);
  end;
  i := 0;
  file_list := file_value[i];
  repeat
    OldPName := '';
    if RadioGroup1.ItemIndex = 0 then
      begin
        cbvar := file_list^.package_name;
        TNode := TreeView1.Items.Add(nil, cbvar);
        repeat
          if file_list^.filename <> OldPName then
            begin
              TreeView1.Items.AddChild(TNode, file_list^.filename);
              OldPName := file_list^.filename;
            end;
          inc(i);
          Dispose(file_list);
          file_list := file_value[i];
        until (cbvar <> file_list^.package_name) or (i = file_value.count - 1);
     end;
    if RadioGroup1.ItemIndex = 1 then
      begin
        cbvar := file_list^.filename;
        TNode := TreeView1.Items.Add(nil, cbvar);
        repeat
          if file_list^.package_name <> OldPName then
            begin
              TreeView1.Items.AddChild(TNode, file_list^.package_name);
              OldPName := file_list^.package_name;
            end;
          inc(i);
          Dispose(file_list);
          file_list := file_value[i];
        until (cbvar <> file_list^.filename) or (i = file_value.count - 1);
     end;
  until (i = file_value.count - 1);
  { travel all, count nodes on main parents }
  for i := 0 to (TreeView1.Items.Count-1) do
    begin
      If TreeView1.Items[i].Parent = nil then
        TreeView1.Items[i].Text := TreeView1.Items[i].Text + ' (' +
                                   IntToStr(TreeView1.Items[i].Count) + ')';
    end;
  TreeView1.Items.EndUpdate;
  { dispose memory here }
  file_value.Free;
  UpdBtn.Enabled := true;
  SaveBtn.Enabled := true;
  RadioGroup1.Enabled := true;
end;


procedure TForm1.SaveBtnClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
  if SaveDialog1.Execute then
    if FileExists(SaveDialog1.Filename) then
      begin
        if MessageDlg('Overwrite this file?', mtWarning, [mbYes, mbNo], 0) = mrYes then
           TreeView1.SaveToFile(SaveDialog1.FileName);
      end
    else
       TreeView1.SaveToFile(SaveDialog1.FileName);
end;

procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
  if not os_is_nt then
    begin
      MessageDlg('Your OS is not supported.', mtWarning, [mbOK], 0);
      halt(1);
    end;
end;

end.

You can download the project (Turbo Delphi 2006) here:

http://rsgp0g.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p-Nx...CK.ZIP?download

Edited February 14, 2009 by Glenn9999

[Yzöwl]

Thanks for this!

I've tried it on Vista (x86) but unfortunately it fails:

[gunsmokingman]

Thank for posting your code, it nice to see a different language being used.

I made a VB.net app that list installed updates. I have tested this on Windows 7 x64,

Vista Sp2 x32, and a friend tried it on Xp not sure if it was x32 or x64 version, he

reported it work and listed 104 updates.

I have it list the updates in a Combobox, on Win7 and Vista if there a URL, upon

selection it will open the url address for the update.

Imports System
Imports System.IO
Public Class Form1
	Dim Act = Microsoft.VisualBasic.CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
	Dim C1 = 0
	'-> On Load Clear The Labels
	Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
		Label1.Text = ""
		Label2.Text = ""
	End Sub
	'-> Button Click List Updates
	Dim KbSave
	Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
		Label1.Text = "Processing Installed Updates"
		Dim Wmi = GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\CIMV2")
		Dim Col = Wmi.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_QuickFixEngineering")
		For Each Obj In Col
			C1 = C1 + 1
			KbSave = KbSave & " Hot Fix ID : " & Obj.HotFixID & " : URL : " & Obj.Caption & vbCrLf
			ComboBox1.Items.Add(Space(3) & Obj.HotFixID & " : " & Obj.Caption)
		Next
		Label1.Text = "Completed Querry For Installed Updates"
		Label2.Text = "Total Installed Updates : " & C1
		Wmi = Nothing
	End Sub
	'-> After Selection Open URL
	Private Sub ComboBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ComboBox1.SelectedIndexChanged
		If InStr(LCase(ComboBox1.SelectedItem), LCase("http")) Or _
		   InStr(LCase(ComboBox1.SelectedItem), LCase("www")) Then
			Dim Z1 = Split(ComboBox1.SelectedItem, " : ")
			Process.Start(Z1(1))
			Label1.Text = ""
		End If
	End Sub
	'-> Save The Listed Updates
	Private Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
		If KbSave = "" Then
			MsgBox("Error, the scan for the installed updates, has not been ran" & vbCrLf & _
				   "Please run the scan for updates, then used the Save Button", 4128, "Error Scan Not Ran")
		Else
			Dim Desktop = Act.SpecialFolders("Desktop")
			Dim KBTxt = Desktop & "\" & My.Computer.Name & "_InstallKB.txt"
			Dim sw As StreamWriter = New StreamWriter(KBTxt.ToString)
			sw.WriteLine(KbSave)
			sw.Close()
			Act.Run(Chr(34) & KBTxt.ToString & Chr(34), 1, True)
		End If
	End Sub
End Class

Source Code

ListUpdates.exe

[James_A]

Nice unit of Pascal Delphi code, Glenn9999.

There are a number of free utilities available to list the installed updates, of which I think the best is probably Nir Sofer's WinUpdatesList (Description and download link are on: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wul.html).

However, I've never seen a utility to list the patches by file before. Now there's a solution to answer questions like: "How did we manage to get file XXX updated?" which would otherwise mean working your way through the lower pane of WinUpdatesList, or trawling through the registry manually.

Thanks.

.

[Glenn9999]

Thanks for this!

I've tried it on Vista (x86) but unfortunately it fails:

An attempt to fix. I got it working in my Windows ME VM now (it had the same error), so I took that check out. Can update the source in the first post once I know it's better.

http://rsgp0g.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pMMb...CK.ZIP?download

If it's what I think it is, it's a good lesson that Windows isn't all that standard from version to version. It's definitely a lesson that it's good to have as many versions as possible to test on. As for me, I only have XP and ME to test on...

Hopefully this will fix it.

[CoffeeFiend]

As of Vista the list of patches isn't kept in the registry anymore (highly likely that Win 7 and Win 2008 too work just the same) but rather in DataStore.edb

I'm not sure if it's the same .edb files as the Win CE database format or Exchange's, and not sure if there's a OLEDB provider for it or anything (probably not)

Either ways, you'd want to use the WUA API instead, which is documented here. And here's a fairly good example on how to use it.

[Glenn9999]

As of Vista the list of patches isn't kept in the registry anymore (highly likely that Win 7 and Win 2008 too work just the same) but rather in DataStore.edb

Okay, I would have no way to know - in this case, it probably wouldn't work if it doesn't put things into that registry path. I might experiment with WUA some someday, but I really didn't mean to produce anything *too* usable - just provide a programming example of a few things from something I wanted to play around and do (and people tend to have questions on how to do). As the other poster said, I do find it useful for XP in tracking patches (the update files only write *some* of the patch files there) in some way.

YMMV, but hopefully it will work out if someone does want it for that. But bugs do tend to irritate me, so I thought I'd try to track this one down and fix it.

Edited February 16, 2009 by Glenn9999

[CoffeeFiend]

if it doesn't put things into that registry path

Actually, that registry path doesn't even exist anymore (FYI).

[gunsmokingman]

Here is an example of using WUA API in a vbs script

Save As ListUpdates.vbs

Option Explicit
 Dim Act :Set Act = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
 Dim Fso :Set Fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
 Dim KB1 :Set KB1 = CreateObject("Microsoft.Update.Session")
 Dim KB2 :Set KB2 = KB1.CreateUpdateSearcher
 Dim Rpt :Rpt = Act.SpecialFolders("Desktop") & "\ListKB_" & Act.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%ComputerName%.txt")
 Dim Url :Url = "http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid="
 Dim Ag1, Ag2, Ag3, Ag4, Col, Obj

	For Each Obj in KB2.QueryHistory(1, KB2.GetTotalHistoryCount)
	 Ag1 = Obj.Title
	 Ag2 = Obj.Date 
	 If InStr(LCase(Obj.Title),LCase("KB")) Then
	  If InStr(LCase(Obj.Title),LCase("Definition")) Then
	   Else
		Ag3 = Split(Ag1,"(")
		Ag4 = Left(Ag3(1),8)
		Ag4 = Replace(Ag4,"KB","")
		Col =  Col & vbCrLf & _
		" Update Title  : " & Ag1 & vbCrLf & _
		" Install Date  : " & Ag2 & vbCrLf & _
		" Support URL   : " & Url & Ag4 & vbCrLf 
	  End If
	 End If 
	Next

	If KB2.GetTotalHistoryCount > 1 Then
	 Set Ag1 = Fso.CreateTextFile(Rpt)
	 Ag1.WriteLine Col
	 Ag1.close()
	 Act.Run(Chr(34) & Rpt & Chr(34)),1,True 
	End If

[James_A]

... it's good to have as many versions as possible to test on. As for me, I only have XP and ME to test on...

Works on Windows 2000 too, but I've only carried out limited testing so far.

[gunsmokingman]

I took the VBS code I posted in the above thread and made it into a VB.net app.

Imports System
Imports System.IO
Public Class Form1
	Dim Act = Microsoft.VisualBasic.CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
	Dim Dic = Microsoft.VisualBasic.CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
	Dim Cmp = My.Computer.Name
	Dim Lne = "-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"
	Dim Vb = vbCrLf
	'-> Listbox1 Open Url
	Private Sub ListBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ListBox1.SelectedIndexChanged
		If InStr(LCase(ListBox1.SelectedItem), LCase("http")) Then
			Dim A1 = Split(ListBox1.SelectedItem, ": ")
			Process.Start(A1(1))
		End If
	End Sub
	'-> Search For Installed Updates
	Dim ColKB1, ColKB2, ColKB3
	Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
		Dim KB1 = Microsoft.VisualBasic.CreateObject("Microsoft.Update.Session")
		Dim KB2 = KB1.CreateUpdateSearcher
		Dim Ag1, Ag2, Ag3, Ag4
		Dim T1 = " Update Title  : "
		Dim T2 = " Install Date  : "
		Dim T3 = " Support URL   : "
		Dim Url = "http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid="
		ListBox1.Items.Add(Lne)
		ListBox2.Items.Add(Lne)
		ListBox3.Items.Add(Lne)
		Dim KBTotal = KB2.GetTotalHistoryCount
		For Each Obj In KB2.QueryHistory(1, KBTotal)
			If Not Dic.Exists(Obj.Title) Then
				Dic.Add(Obj.Title, Obj.Title)
				Ag1 = Obj.Title : Ag2 = Obj.Date
				If InStr(LCase(Obj.Title), LCase("Definition")) Then
					ListBox2.Items.Add(T1 & Ag1)
					ListBox2.Items.Add(T2 & Ag2)
					ListBox2.Items.Add(Lne)
					ColKB2 = ColKB2 & T1 & Ag1 & vbCrLf & T2 & Ag2 & vbCrLf & Lne & vbCrLf
				ElseIf InStr(LCase(Obj.Title), LCase("KB")) Then
					Ag3 = Split(Ag1, "(")
					Ag4 = Replace(Ag3(1), "KB", "")
					Ag4 = Replace(Ag4, ")", "")
					ColKB1 = ColKB1 & T1 & Ag1 & vbCrLf & T2 & Ag2 & vbCrLf & _
							 T3 & Url & Ag4 & vbCrLf & Lne & vbCrLf
					ListBox1.Items.Add(T1 & Ag1)
					ListBox1.Items.Add(T2 & Ag2)
					ListBox1.Items.Add(T3 & Url & Ag4)
					ListBox1.Items.Add(Lne)
				Else
					ListBox3.Items.Add(T1 & Ag1)
					ListBox3.Items.Add(T2 & Ag2)
					ListBox3.Items.Add(Lne)
					ColKB3 = ColKB3 & T1 & Ag1 & vbCrLf & T2 & Ag2 & vbCrLf & Lne & vbCrLf
				End If
			End If
		Next
	End Sub
	'-> Clear List Button Click
	Private Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
		ClearAll()
	End Sub
	'-> Clear All Listboxes And Empty The Dictionary
	Private Sub ClearAll()
		Try
			ListBox1.Items.Clear()
			ListBox2.Items.Clear()
			ListBox3.Items.Clear()
			Dim a, i
			a = Dic.Keys
			For i = 0 To Dic.Count - 1
				Dic.Remove(a(i))
			Next
		Catch ex As Exception
		End Try
	End Sub
	'-> Save All Update Information
	Private Sub Button3_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button3.Click
		If ListBox1.Items.Count > 1 Then
			Dim Rpt = Act.SpecialFolders("Desktop") & "\ListKB_" & Cmp & ".txt"
			Dim D = Date.Today.Year.ToString & "/" & Date.Today.Month.ToString & "/" & Date.Today.Day.ToString
			Dim sw As StreamWriter = New StreamWriter(Rpt.ToString)
			Dim Z17 = Space(17)
			sw.WriteLine(Lne)
			sw.WriteLine(" Computer Name : " & Cmp)
			sw.WriteLine(" Date Of Scan  : " & D & vbCrLf & Lne & vbCrLf)
			sw.WriteLine(Lne & vbCrLf & Z17 & "Windows Updates Security" & vbCrLf & Lne)
			sw.WriteLine(ColKB1)
			If ListBox2.Items.Count > 1 Then
				sw.WriteLine(Lne & vbCrLf & Z17 & "Windows Updates Defender" & vbCrLf & Lne)
				sw.WriteLine(ColKB2)
			End If
			If ListBox3.Items.Count > 1 Then
				sw.WriteLine(Lne & vbCrLf & Z17 & "Windows Updates Other" & vbCrLf & Lne)
				sw.WriteLine(ColKB3)
			End If
			sw.Close()
			Act.Run(Chr(34) & Rpt.ToString & Chr(34), 1, True)
		Else
			MsgBox(Space(25) & "No Information Error" & vbCrLf & _
				   "Press the List Updates Button to have this app start the" & vbCrLf & _
				   "scan to list all installed updates From Windows Update", 4128)
		End If
	End Sub
End Class

Here is the Source Code

ListKB_Ver1.exe