gpupdate /force vs wuauclt.exe /detectnow

tonib

Say your clients have out of date updates and you use a WSUS server in an Active directory environment. Which of these two commands do you use on the client to bring it up to date? When do you use each one? They both seem to force updates to the client, or does the wuauclt one just tell you there are updates but you still have to force them using gpupdate?

Treg

Wuauclt /detectnow is used to force a client to check a WSUS server

gpupdate / force is used to refresh it's group policy settings. Eg if you change a group policy setting on a DC and want the change immdediately on a client, you run the command.