MSCatalog

MSCatalog is a PowerShell module for searching and downloading updates from https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com. It is cross-platform and runs on both Desktop and Core versions of PowerShell.

Getting Started

MSCatalog can be installed from the PowerShell Gallery in the usual way.

Install-Module -Name MSCatalog -Scope CurrentUser

It is currently tested against the following images/PowerShell versions via AppVeyor, although support for Windows PowerShell 5.1 may be dropped in the future.

Operating System	PowerShell
Windows Server 2019	Windows PowerShell 5.1
Windows Server 2019	PowerShell Core 7.0.1
Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS	PowerShell Core 7.0.1

Get-MSCatalogUpdate

This command is used to retrieve updates from the https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com website. By default it returns the first 25 items from the search sorted by the LastUpdated field in descending order.

Get-MSCatalogUpdate -Search "Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803)"

Title                                                                                               Products            Classification   LastUpdated Size    
-----                                                                                               --------            --------------   ----------- ----    
2019-08 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4512509)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2019/08/19  930.7 MB
2019-08 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 4.8 for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64 (KB4511521) Windows Server 2016 Updates          2019/08/16  46.7 MB 
2019-07 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4507466)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2019/07/16  915.5 MB
2019-06 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4509478)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2019/06/26  895.7 MB
2019-06 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4503288)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2019/06/18  895.3 MB
2019-06 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 4.8 for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64 (KB4502563) Windows Server 2016 Updates          2019/06/17  45.5 MB 
2019-05 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4499183)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2019/05/20  891.4 MB
2019-05 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4505064)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2019/05/19  887.5 MB
2019-04 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4493437)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2019/04/24  883.9 MB
2019-03 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4489894)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2019/03/19  846.1 MB
2019-02 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4487029)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2019/02/19  835.8 MB
2019-01 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4480976)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2019/01/14  808.2 MB
2018-10 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4462933)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2018/10/23  782.3 MB
2018-09 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4458469)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2018/09/26  767.3 MB
2018-09 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4464218)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2018/09/17  756.5 MB
2018-08 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4346783)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2018/08/30  748.8 MB
2018-07 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4340917)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2018/07/20  713.1 MB
2018-07 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4345421)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2018/07/16  678.2 MB
2018-06 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4284848)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2018/06/22  633.4 MB
2018-06 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4338548)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2018/06/05  431.4 MB
2018-05 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4100403)          Windows Server 2016 Updates          2018/05/24  426.7 MB
2018-05 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4103721)          Windows Server 2016 Security Updates 2018/05/04  326.5 MB
2019-09 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4516058)          Windows Server 2016 Security Updates 2019/09/09  933.8 MB
2019-09 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 4.8 for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64 (KB4514357) Windows Server 2016 Security Updates 2019/09/06  46.7 MB
2019-08 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4512501)          Windows Server 2016 Security Updates 2019/08/09  919.3 MB

The SortBy and Descending parameters allow you to manipulate the search results. For example:

Get-MSCatalogUpdate -Search "Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803)" -SortBy "Title" -Descending

The Strict parameter will return results which only contain the exact search term. For example:

Get-MSCatalogUpdate -Search "Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803)" -Strict

If you would like to return all available results you can specify the AllPages parameter.

Get-MSCatalogUpdate -Search "Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803)" -AllPages

NOTE: This could cause a significant number of web requests. The catalog website will only provide 25 results at a time and this would just keep looping over all available results until it reaches the maximum of 1000.

Save-MSCatalogUpdate

This command is used to download update files from the https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com website.

There are two options for specifying which update to download. Firstly, you can use the Update parameter to specify an object returned from Get-MSCatalogUpdate. For example, first run Get-MSCatalogUpdate and store the results in a variable.

$Updates = Get-MSCatalogUpdate -Search "Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803)"

Then specify the update that you wish to download by its index in the $Updates array, 0 being the first, and by default often the latest, update in the list.

Save-MSCatalogUpdate -Update $Updates[0] -Destination ".\"

You can also pipe from one command to the other, so a one-liner to get the latest update might look like this.

(Get-MSCatalogUpdate -Search "Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803)")[0] | Save-MSCatalogUpdate -Destination ".\"

Secondly, you can specify the Guid parameter. For example, first select the Title and Guid fields from our $Updates variable.

$Updates | Select-Object Title, Guid

Title                                                                                               Guid
-----                                                                                               ----
2019-08 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4512509)          58b95dca-41aa-44e3-8293-eccd607481d5
2019-08 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 4.8 for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64 (KB4511521) 4734d13d-5e5a-4b64-9e93-225674ec811c
2019-07 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4507466)          2a85b739-449e-4654-b527-0236c36eb975
2019-06 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4509478)          79d238a5-3bd4-43cb-a254-bfd57b2423b0
2019-06 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4503288)          e48ba8d6-a18f-4d4b-baa0-3f2d9383c5ec
2019-06 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 4.8 for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64 (KB4502563) c34b0ed7-539f-40b2-bbd5-b39efec52e61
2019-05 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4499183)          ab66c1d1-7e05-49eb-aa1f-b0b4e79943ba
2019-05 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4505064)          5dc96624-4501-4d4c-9f93-22afaf806790
2019-04 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4493437)          bfe757b7-6572-47be-a9b0-cb7e8708e67b
2019-03 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4489894)          153a50a5-a358-4c33-a027-af9d8b4e2114
2019-02 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4487029)          638ef53d-cec0-4c6e-bc35-e37abb3ee044
2019-01 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4480976)          d1dcf2fe-f549-48cd-be3a-e3b22d34853f
2018-10 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4462933)          f7333e00-7774-443b-ac39-b24dea578451
2018-09 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4458469)          7a97d557-1d5c-4482-b6e7-20aeb4c26ce7
2018-09 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4464218)          cc61ea03-c78d-4e13-8e89-13aea84ecf48
2018-08 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4346783)          f5eca68a-8efa-45cb-a1da-12e23cf42f79
2018-07 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4340917)          f272ab6b-3bab-483b-8ae7-9509c7f6bbb9
2018-07 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4345421)          19a5b8b7-63d0-45d5-895b-3d3be7303c1e
2018-06 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4284848)          e298416e-5814-44d3-8075-cd89ec691369
2018-06 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4338548)          3519225a-e20a-4a8e-8e42-7a9a429484d7
2018-05 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4100403)          940927c3-9d3d-4303-833c-113567373d6b
2018-05 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4103721)          fdd62b2a-0e40-4c06-b153-7d2f5e45f613
2019-09 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4516058)          aa4b167d-e6b6-4206-aa84-b9c135353b77
2019-09 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 4.8 for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64 (KB4514357) 909203a9-3703-41b7-af63-efc31496314a
2019-08 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 (1803) for x64-based Systems (KB4512501)          5570183b-a0b7-4478-b0af-47a6e65417ca

Then download a specific update as follows.

Save-MSCatalogUpdate -Guid "4734d13d-5e5a-4b64-9e93-225674ec811c" -Destination ".\"

Some updates on the https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com website are provided as multiple separate files, usually separating different languages. If this is the case you will be prompted to select the file you wish to download.

$Update = Get-MSCatalogUpdate -Search "Update for Microsoft Office 2013 (KB4011677) 32-Bit Edition"
Save-MSCatalogUpdate -Update $Update -Destination ".\"

Id  FileName
--  --------
 0  proof-ar-sa_d140d14d65cf35bf269443bedf33a91ce25ced17.cab
 1  proof-sl-si_7779ffad03046159c9fe46ea8b51cef2359ed043.cab
 2  proof-ru-ru_ad51c3015fef4ec84c7bf1bd7ecea3ae50513001.cab
 3  proof-fr-fr_cbaeb8d70abf4bdcdeab71b4e49a398ab683712c.cab
 4  proof-ko-kr_8b46b86d03f85b4d086ca4d1660a7a21ac42f578.cab
 5  proof-de-de_6b6827e86e0dc683245928c6b79dd4ac30347025.cab
 6  proof-eu-es_545179291145aef04a5d52fa1a099b9d75fd9579.cab
 7  proof-da-dk_ce1216eeb6613c13c05aef035d975244a30104c0.cab
 8  proof-hu-hu_2836b2b61c069f8044fadff8da95a7fe863c8ac1.cab
 9  proof-cs-cz_e770f507e123ad7041e0bebff98a56c52371ee9e.cab
10  proof-he-il_2f9d6065513e8b16f071b2cde122fa58af8dcfcf.cab
11  proof-en-us_1ae4178394992158748a482513090b4b34a4f14b.cab
12  proof-sk-sk_7deb8a95620b29d6ea18da89280f78a0d27f8483.cab
13  proof-ja-jp_3b98bb08afebd3008eb35b57a8ad6cfd8d7a3d3f.cab
14  proof-nl-nl_17cae97668c7823db00841fa29f21c2e7dd3d2f7.cab
15  proof-gl-es_06ad65e6d87f03024b134bfd1738fb1e5c0dbf73.cab
16  proof-pt-pt_9b20088d5ecc7b5667ee50ce62c05691f69f6b7b.cab
17  proof-zh-tw_85ba14c9118dbd2f8f45994bc2be9dd43bea0835.cab
18  proof-uk-ua_fa2c211f0338f05a7246c5f964dee232d1324c2d.cab
19  proof-tr-tr_4cebbef622cbc4ba57c4dbee0d599f43517c81ea.cab
20  proof-sv-se_a76dd4e3f8cd6cd3c78dda6f790e96288e1d342b.cab
21  proof-lt-lt_555e3ae1896c64e0bf4d090967441c84144f5fc0.cab
22  proof-it-it_1d501afe89d70168f85ea3ba4abf0f56530d5a07.cab
23  proof-nb-no_912c5a241d0cc0bdcb1558e80c5c2da43c364ed5.cab
24  proof-hr-hr_121779d22ece7a765d903506d73e0ac20753b5e8.cab
25  proof-pt-br_4881529c0171ea6208ce18b5de6c71684bad8976.cab
26  proof-et-ee_bd4fe166c78101ff937564677cac47a222be34d0.cab
27  proof-lv-lv_e7b24d89a2a72b1d8f3becef347ec49af736bbb0.cab
28  proof-th-th_57215ae8456dc0426c9a0a7b30c5c93c53fb93a7.cab
29  proof-el-gr_2f1ba04c2b0fb19ea1155c3d64a789e9a73b3684.cab
30  proof-ro-ro_62e712365bcb41cfb64417b228ee44d0a14b1a56.cab
31  proof-bg-bg_eaba8da224491f79802b27eceed9acfef68b56a4.cab
32  proof-sr-cyrl-cs_6f091498ad5b32e43838b6993cba9e32785aee61.cab
33  proof-zh-cn_de159b2b81701d56d070455fb63d062a8c84c31f.cab
34  proof-nn-no_5554397a926949767d64803f19296b18ca952c50.cab
35  proof-pl-pl_f911fda3832d574bd077a68b574565d8cd739f33.cab
36  proof-hi-in_0628542b025c310c8ccef630627acb6f33648909.cab
37  proof-ca-es_f6e24c8abd81d16ee14e4094e98419fccf19d224.cab
38  proof-sr-latn-cs_551d05fa7b113d467d36f394976992f95bd192b5.cab
39  proof-es-es_56697686e635a996b06b216fc3f0b4f7a49686f3.cab
40  proof-fi-fi_100b6b21d102186192a860630007c06026106b0e.cab
Multiple files exist for this update. Enter the Id of the file to download:

However, if you do not wish to be prompted, you can use the Language parameter to specify the language-country code of the update to download.

$Update = Get-MSCatalogUpdate -Search "Update for Microsoft Office 2013 (KB4011677) 32-Bit Edition"
Save-MSCatalogUpdate -Update $Update -Destination ".\" -Language "en-us"

HtmlAgilityPack

In order to stay cross-platform, MSCatalog uses the HtmlAgilityPack HTML parser library. This is instead of relying on the common IE based ParsedHtml property of the Invoke-WebRequest CmdLet, which would only work on Windows based systems, and even then would not work in certain scenarios e.g. when run in the context of the SYSTEM user.

The PowerShell gallery package includes the Net45 and netstandard2.0 .dll files and will attempt to add these to your session via the Add-Type CmdLet when you import the module (Net45 if using the Desktop version of PowerShell and netstandard2.0 if using PowerShell Core). If this fails, or you require a different version of the HtmlAgilityPack library, all you need to do is ensure that you manually load the required .dll before you run Import-Module MSCatalog and your version will be honoured.