How to (Force) Run Windows Update From Command Line | 2 Ways

Windows Update is designed by Microsoft to keep your system safe and sound. Updating your computer to the latest version of Windows 11/10 ensures you can experience new features, security patch updates, and other fixes for your OS.

There are many ways to check for Windows updates. In Windows 10, you can go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update, and in Windows 11, it's located in Settings > Windows Update.

Besides using the Windows Update feature, you can also use the Windows update command line to get your Windows updated. Continue reading to know more.

How to use Windows update command line?

To run Windows update from command line, two powerful inbuilt tools can make a great difference. One is Command Prompt, and the other is PowerShell. Now, let’s see how to use them to perform Windows updates respectively.

▶ Way 1. Run Windows update via Command Prompt

Command Prompt is a classical command-line-based application in most Windows operating systems to manage disks and handle system issues. When you type commands to update Windows, you should be careful because it only shows the results instead of the execution process.

For Windows 10 system, you can:

Step 1. Type cmd in the search box, and right-click the top one, then choose Run as administrator to open Command Prompt.

Step 2. Type the following command lines and press "Enter" after each.

UsoClient StartScan (scan for all available updates)

UsoClient StartDownload (download the updates you scan for)

UsoClient StartInstall (install all the downloaded updates)

UsoClient RestartDevice (restart your computer for installing the updates)

UsoClient ScanInstallWait (check, download, and install updates)

For older versions of operating systems like Windows 8, you need to enter the following commands in the Command Prompt window one by one:

wuauclt /detectnow (check for updates)

wuauclt /updatenow (start to install the detected updates)

wuauclt /detectnow /updatenow (check, download, and install updates)

▶ Way 2. Run Windows update via Windows PowerShell

Apart from using Command Prompt to run Windows update command line, you can also use Windows PowerShell to update Windows. And it only takes a few steps to get it done.

Step 1. Type "powershell" in the search box, right-click the first one, then choose "Run as administrator" to launch PowerShell.

Step 2. Type Install-Module PSWindowsUpdate in the PowerShell window to install the Windows update module.

Step 3. Type Get-WindowsUpdate to check for all available updates.

Step 4. Enter Install-WindowsUpdate to begin installing the Windows updates.

What to do if you fail to update Windows from command line?

However, not every time you can successfully run Windows update command line, Windows 10 update may fail with error code 0x80070057 or other errors. But don't worry, this part will walk you through how to force Windows to update.

Before learning force Windows update command line, one of the most important things is to back up your operating system out of safety.

▶ Before you do: back up your operating system

Since any corruption during the system update may cause upgrade failure, data loss, and boot issues, you'd better back up your system to an external hard drive. But what's the easiest and quickest way to make a backup of the operating system to a different disk? The answer is to clone OS via a reliable OS migration tool like AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional.

With this software, you can clone the operating system, copy disk and partition, and move programs and folders. Once something bad happens, you can restore them from the backup. Let's start with how to migrate OS to SSD as a backup.

Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Click “Clone” in the top toolbar, and choose “Migrate OS”.

Step 2. Select your new drive as the destination for the OS backup. Tick "I want to delete all partitions on the disk 2 to migrate system to the disk” and click "Next" button.

Step 3. You are allowed to resize the system partition and change the drive letter on the new SSD. Then click "Next" to move on.

Step 4. Read a note on how to boot from the destination disk as you may need this later.

Step 5. Click "Apply" and then "Proceed" to back up your operating system to new drive.

▶ Tip 1. Force Windows to update from Microsoft

When you finish the backup, you can begin to update Windows forcibly. The first tip is to free download Windows 10.

Step 1. Go to the Microsoft official website, go to the "Download Windows 10" section, and click "Update now".

Step 2. Download and install the latest version of Windows 10.

Step 3. Then, follow the instructions to force update Windows 10.

▶ Tip 2. Force Windows to update with CMD

For those who don’t want to install Windows with the Windows assistant tool, force updating Windows 10 with CMD is a good choice.

Step 1. Run Command Prompt as administrator as we said before.

Step 2. Type the force windows update command line: wuauclt.exe /updatenow and hit "Enter".

Conclusion

Windows update is a free service that you should never ignore. It can keep your computer stay with the latest security and software updates. In this article, we have introduced two effective ways to perform the Windows update command line and provided you with another two tips for force update Windows if you meet upgrade failure.

In addition, if you are worried about data loss, follow our guide to back up your operating system via AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional.