Uninstall Windows updates

There are situations where a Windows computer installs an Windows update that is not compatible with the system or causes an issue in the system or with used applications. Issues can affect productivity imminently our over time, it can be discovered as performance issues our failures showing randomly. Uninstalling unwanted updates by hand can be a time consuming task and result in unhappy users and overworked technicians. Using a client management tool like upKeeper Manager will make this kind of tasks easier and less time consuming.

Investigation

When you suspect that you have a bad update start an investigation. Start by document the issue/issues and verify that they are present on computers that have the same update and are configured the same way. When you have verified that the issue are on many computers uninstall suspected update on one computer and verify that the issue/issues are gone. Next step is to automate update uninstallation on the rest of affected computers.    

Preparation

One way to automate the update removal is to create a powershell script uninstalling unwanted update. To make this possible we need to know package name of the update. Get the full list of updates installed on a afftected computer by running this command.

Get-WindowsPackage -Online

You can filter the list by addning information about the update you are looking for. Example KB in the name.

Get-WindowsPackage -Online -PackageName "*KB*"

When you find the update you are looking for copy the package name. Package name is used to address the correct update that you want to uninstall. Powershell command to uninstall update can look like this:

Remove-Windowspackage -Online -PackageName "Package_for_KB5012170~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~22621.372.1.1"

Deploying

When you have your command ready and have tried it manually you can go on address all computers affected. Deploying your script to your computers can be done in many ways depending on your client management system and your skills. We at upKeeper recommend using upKeeper Manager and deploy your script as an application. Benefits deploying as an application: easy to create, fast and traceable.