How to view update history on Windows 11

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On Windows 11, the “Update history” settings let you see a list of the most recent updates installed on your laptop or desktop computer in case you want to check if a particular update applied successfully or failed. The Windows 11 update history page can also be useful to know more details about fixes, improvements, and known issues for a recently installed quality update, or find out the one causing issues to uninstall it.

In this guide, you will learn the steps to view the update history of Windows 11 using the Settings app, Command Prompt, and PowerShell.

View Windows 11 update history with Settings

To view the Windows Update history:

1. Open Settings on Windows 11.

2. Click on Windows Update.

3. Under the “More options” section, click the Update history setting.

   

4. Check the recent history of installed updates, including quality updates, drivers, definition updates (Microsoft Defender Antivirus), feature updates, and optional Windows 11 updates.

   

Once you complete the steps, you will know which updates were installed successfully, as well as those updates that failed to apply. If you click the “Learn more” link for each update, the Microsoft support website will open to offer more details about the changes, improvements, and known issues (if any) about that particular update. You can also check the Windows 11 update history page to see all the updates available for all releases for this version.

In the case that an update failed to install, you’d notice an error code message, which you can refer to search online to determine the reason and the steps to fix the problem.

Microsoft still hasn’t completely moved all the update settings to this app, which means that if an update is causing problems, you will still need to click the “Uninstall updates” option to open Control Panel to remove it.

View Windows 11 update history with Command Prompt

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To check the history list of Windows 11 updates with commands: 

1. Open Start.

2. Search for Command Prompt and click the top result to open the app.

3. Type the following command to view the update history and press Enter:

   wmic qfe list

   If you want to find a specific update, you can use the KB number, typing the following command and pressing Enter:

   wmic qfe | find "5005642"

   

4. Check the Windows Update history of your device.

After you complete the steps, you will get a list with a link to the Microsoft support website to know exactly what’s included with the update. You’ll also see when the update was installed, description, hotfixid (KB number), and more.

Additionally, if you want to uninstall a specific Windows 11 update using Command Prompt, you can use its KB number and run this command: wusa /uninstall /kb:5005642 /quiet. Remember to change “5005642” with the KB number for the update you want to uninstall.

View Windows 11 update history with PowerShell

Alternatively, you can also use the Microsoft PSWindowsUpdate module to manage updates through PowerShell.

To see the history list of Windows 11 updates installed on the device: 

1. Open Start.

2. Search for PowerShell, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

3. Type the following command to install the PowerShell module to update Windows 11 and press Enter:

   Install-Module PSWindowsUpdate

   Quick tip: If you get an error trying to run the command, it might be because of the default restricted settings available with PowerShell. If this is the case, you may need to run the Set-ExecutionPolicy bypass command, follow the steps in this guide, and then run the Set-ExecutionPolicy undefined command to restore the default security script setting.

4. Type the following command to view a list of the 20 most recent updates and press Enter:

   Get-WUHistory | Select-Object -First 20

   

Once you complete the steps, the device may need to restart to complete the process. In the command, you can always change 20 for the number of updates you want to see in the list.

The PSWindowsUpdate module also allows you to install updates and uninstall patches causing problems after a Patch Tuesday rollout.