WMIC (Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line) is a powerful command-line utility that allows users to perform a variety of administrative tasks on Windows systems. One of its capabilities is to interact with the Quick Fix Engineering (QFE) updates, which are essentially patches or hotfixes provided by Microsoft to address specific issues.

Understanding how to use WMIC to manage QFE updates is crucial for systems administrators who need to ensure that their systems are up-to-date with the latest patches. This article will guide you through the process of using WMIC to list, view, and manage QFE updates on a Windows system.

Examples:

1. Listing Installed QFE Updates:
To list all the installed QFE updates on your Windows system, you can use the following WMIC command:

   wmic qfe list

This command will display a list of all the installed updates along with details such as the HotFixID, Description, InstalledOn date, and more.

2. Filtering Updates by HotFixID:
If you want to find a specific update by its HotFixID, you can use a query with the WMIC command:

   wmic qfe where "HotFixID='KB123456'" list full

Replace KB123456 with the actual HotFixID of the update you are looking for. This command will provide detailed information about the specified update.

3. Exporting the List of Updates to a File:
To export the list of installed QFE updates to a text file, you can redirect the output of the WMIC command:

   wmic qfe list > C:\Path\To\Your\File.txt

Replace C:\Path\To\Your\File.txt with the actual path where you want to save the file. This can be useful for documentation or auditing purposes.

4. Checking for Specific Update Installation Date:
To find out when a specific update was installed, you can use the following command:

   wmic qfe where "HotFixID='KB123456'" get InstalledOn

This will display the installation date of the specified update.

5. Removing an Installed Update:
While WMIC can be used to query updates, removing them typically requires using the wusa.exe tool. For example, to uninstall an update, you can use:

   wusa /uninstall /kb:123456

Replace 123456 with the actual KB number of the update you want to remove.