Patch Tuesday Improvements

[Esben_D]

Hello,

As you might know, I’m mainly responsible for the Patch Tuesday reports, and as you might have seen previously, I’ve been looking at improving it to make it more accurate both historically and for future updates.

In my previous attempt, I tried using “greater than” logic to make it so that when you run a patch Tuesday report, even after installing newer patches.

However, it seems that Microsoft’s patch numbers aren’t as stable as I thought, causing issues with accuracy due to out-of-band updates and SSU.

Attempt #2

We scan the specific build number of Windows which can be tied to a specific Patch Tuesday update.

For example, version 2004 and 20H2 UBR versions for Patch Tuesday are 928
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/april-13-2021-kb5001330-os-builds-19041-928-and-19042-928-...

By creating a report, linking each UBR to their Patch Tuesday, you would get a report which shows exactly on which patch Tuesday a machine currently is and it can indicate which ones are on, or higher than the latest patch Tuesday.

If you want to give this test a try, you can do the following:

1. Run the report:
   PatchTuesdayV6.txt (5.3 KB)

2. If the build number Column is outdated, rescan the assets in the report.
   

Let me know below about your findings and if the report is accurate for you. As long as your machines have the patch Tuesday of April installed, they should be listed as up to date.

[Esben_D]

Peter:

Also there is still no color display of green or red for the up-to-date or not and no missing Kb-numbers display kolom.

Since it just a test I have not added everything yet.

Peter:

If I compare the April 2021 report with this new report on the number of workstations that is up-to-date, I see a difference of 598 workplaces that your new report gives less as up-to-date.

The exports seem to contain the filters you applied, so I can’t see why there is a difference since the export only shows up-to-date workstations

[Peter1]

Hope this helps, only a filter on Workstation else the export is to big to upload:

Hotfix Microsoft Patch Tuesday April 2021 Audit Query_All_Workstations.zip (3.7 MB)
Hotfix Test Esben PatchTuesdayV2.txt UBR All Workstations.xlsx.zip (3.5 MB)

[mzipperer]

so far looks good the EOL markers are nice to have

[KevinA-REJIS]

Working pretty well for me too! Thanks EsbenD!

[Ryan1]

Thanks - this works really well!

[proxykeeper]

[Esben_D]

First thing that would come to my mind is a type in the registry scanning config, which is why it might not be getting picked up. Maybe a space or something hidden.

[proxykeeper]

Thanks EsbenD, it did work last month and no changes have been made to it.

[proxykeeper]

FYI I recreated the registry item in Lansweeper and it is now collecting data

[proxykeeper]

HI EsbenD,
I tested the report but am not getting the results I expected. The issue is not with the report itself, but the collection of UBR registry info. For some reason, it is not being picked up this month even though we still have it configured to do so. It has been working up until this month. We are investigating on our side. Is anyone else having this issue?