WUA API unable to find update

Question

Code sample:

$UpdateSession = New-Object -ComObject 'Microsoft.Update.Session'

$UpdateSearcher = $UpdateSession.CreateUpdateSearcher()
$Updates = $UpdateSearcher.Search('IsInstalled=1')

$Updates | Where-Object { $_.Title -like '*KB2506143*' }

I'm trying to uninstall WMF3 programmatically, but I keep getting errors when trying to utilize wusa.exe,

wusa /uninstall /kb:2506143 /quiet /norestart /log:C:\log.evt

CbsClient::CbsClient.00110: Failed to create a CBS session instance
CbsClient::CbsClient.00127: Exit with error code 0X80040154 (Class not registered)
UninstallWorker.00664: Start of search
CbsClient::OpenPackageByKB.00268: CBS session is not initialized.
CbsClient::OpenPackageByKB.00320: Exit with error code 0X8000ffff (Catastrophic failure)
UninstallWorker.00667: Failed: OpenPackageByKB() for KB2506143
UninstallWorker.00799: Exit with error code 0X8000ffff (Catastrophic failure)
RebootIfRequested.01446: Reboot is not scheduled. IsRunWizardStarted: 0, IsRebootRequired: 0, RestartMode: 1
Windows update could not be uninstalled because of error 2147549183 "Catastrophic failure" (Command line: "C:\windows\System32\wusa.exe /uninstall /kb:2506143 /quiet /norestart /log:C:\log.evt")
wWinMain.01962: Failed to uninstall update ; Error: 0X8000ffff, Catastrophic failure. Command line: C:\windows\System32\wusa.exe /uninstall /kb:2506143 /quiet /norestart /log:C:\log.evt
wWinMain.01998: Exit with error code 0X8000ffff (Catastrophic failure)

so I'm pursuing using the WUA API. The above code snippet gives me a $Null return, but I can use Get-Hotfix -ID KB2506143 or Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_QuickFixEngineering -Filter 'HotFixID="KB2506143"' to find the update.

This question is similar, but it's getting access denied when trying to uninstall the patch after it has already been found, while my question is: how do I find the patch in the first place?

I'm not sure how the patch got applied, so if I run into the same issue once I find it, I have that resolution at least.

Answer 1

So the purpose of all this was to upgrade to WMF5.1 programmatically and I found a workaround for what I was trying to accomplish. PowerShell v3 was enabled in the OS using DISM during the build process and cannot be removed by WUA because it wasn't placed there by WUA.

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Workaround 1:

dism.exe /Online /Disable-Feature:MicrosoftWindowsPowerShellV3

This downgrades $PSVersionTable to v2, but it does not remove the patch KB2506143. This causes the need to uninstall it through the UI manually still so it didn't really accomplish what I need.

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Workaround 2:

WMF3 cannot be upgraded to WMF5, but it can be upgraded to WMF4, then WMF5(.1).

Ultimately, I installed WMF4 over WMF3 with wusa.exe while still disabling v3 in dism for good measure and was successful installing WMF5.1 over WMF4 after a reboot (again, with wusa.exe).

The limitation is rooted with the WUA not being able to manage patches that it did not install (through a .msu or WSUS)