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View Patch History in Chronological Order

Newbie question:

Windows 2000 server - in control panel, add-remove programs I have the usual listing of hotfixes and service packs. Is there any way to view the patch history and determine when each hotfix was installed? I am especially interested in verifying the date of the most recent patch/service pack.

Thanks!

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nedvis

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vhpcomp

ASKER

I tried the above on the 2 machines I am trying to check and I get an error message when I try to view update history. Unable to resolve by trying several fixes suggested in kb I found. My user account is in admin group of both machines, but I suspect it is a permission set at domain level. Could I find the info in a log file perhaps?
Thanks!

nedvis

By default, the Windows Update client records all transaction information to the following log file:
%windir%\Windowsupdate.log
There are couple more log files ( within C:\WINNT\SoftwareDistribution ) containing Windows updates history but editing/viewing those text files with notepad is useless since notepad cannot parse well the data withing these files.
File are res1.log , res2.log, ReportingEvents.log, edb.log, edb0022.log and so on. How Windows Update Agent, Prser and report services are compiling these file into one unique Windows Updates Histroy report is beyond my knowledge. I'm assuming only Windows Updates ActiveX controls can parse those data in form that is readable for us humans.

If I were you I would check folder C:\WINNT\Downloaded Program Files for WUWebControlClass file to see whether it is dammaged or missing. Or better yet, I would delete file just to force Windows update manager to download new and updated WUWEB ActiveX control which will allow system to re-read and recompile WU Histrory report for you.

good luck
nedvis

vhpcomp

ASKER

Well, removing that file didn't help, but I'm accepting the answer you provided, as that is the infomation I'm looking for.