CmdID

CmdID / PowerShell / Cmdlets / Update

Update-Help

Downloads and installs the newest help files on your computer. PowerShell reference

From the PowerShell reference 11 parameters

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What it does

from the PowerShell reference, CC BY 4.0

Downloads and installs the newest help files on your computer. The Update-Help cmdlet downloads the newest help files for PowerShell modules and installs them on your computer. You need not restart PowerShell to make the change effective. You can use the Get-Help cmdlet to view the new help files immediately. Update-Help checks the version of the help files on your computer. If you don't have help files for a module or if your help files are outdated, Update-Help downloads the newest help files. The help files can be downloaded and installed from the internet or a file share. Without parameters, Update-Help updates the help files for modules that support updateable help and are loaded in the session or installed in a location included in the $Env:PSModulePath. For more information, see about_Updatable_Help. Update-Help checks the version of the help installed. If Update-Help can't find updated help files for a module it continues silently without displaying an error message. Use the Force parameter to skip the version check. Use the Verbose parameter to see status and progress details. Use the Module parameter to update help files for a particular module. If the cultural settings of your operating system are configured for a language that's not available for updateable help, Update-Help continues silently without downloading any help. Use the UICulture parameter to download help files in a supported language. Help is always available for the en-US locale. You can also use Update-Help on computers that aren't connected to the internet. First, use the Save-Helpcmdlet to download help files from the internet and save them in a shared folder that's accessible to the system not connected to the internet. Then use the SourcePath parameter of Update-Help to download the updated help files from the shared and install them on the computer. The Update-Help cmdlet was introduced in Windows PowerShell 3.0. IMPORTANT: Update-Help requires administrative privileges. You must be a member of the Administrators group on the computer to update the help files for the core PowerShell modules. To download or update the help files for modules in the PowerShell installation directory ($PSHOME\Modules), including the PowerShell Core modules, start PowerShell by using the Run as administrator option. For example: Start-Process powershell.exe -Verb RunAs. …

Update-Help [[-Module] <String[]>] [-FullyQualifiedModule <ModuleSpecification[]>] [[-SourcePath] <String[]>] [-Recurse] [[-UICulture] <CultureInfo[]>] [-Credential <PSCredential>] [-UseDefaultCredentials] [-Force] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]
Update-Help [[-Module] <String[]>] [-FullyQualifiedModule <ModuleSpecification[]>] [-LiteralPath <String[]>] [-Recurse] [[-UICulture] <CultureInfo[]>] [-Credential <PSCredential>] [-UseDefaultCredentials] [-Force] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

Update help files for all modules

Update-HelpIdentify

Update help files for specified modules

Update-Help -Module Microsoft.PowerShell*Identify

Updating help on a system not set to the en-US locale

Update-Help Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility -Force Update-Help Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility -Force -UICulture en-GBIdentify

Update help files automatically

$jobParams = @{ Name = 'UpdateHelpJob' Credential = 'Domain01\User01' ScriptBlock = '{Update-Help}' Trigger = (New-JobTrigger -Daily -At "3 AM") } Register-ScheduledJob @jobParamsIdentify

Update help files on multiple computers from a file share

Save-Help -DestinationPath \\Server01\Share\PSHelp -Credential Domain01\Admin01 Invoke-Command -ComputerName (Get-Content Servers.txt) -ScriptBlock { Update-Help -SourcePath \\Server01\Share\PSHelp -Credential Domain01\Admin01 }Identify

Get a list of updated help files

Update-Help -Module Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility -VerboseIdentify

Find modules that support Updatable Help

Get-Module -ListAvailable | Where-Object -Property HelpInfoUriIdentify

Inventory updated help files

# Get-UpdateHelpVersion.ps1 param ( [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)] [string[]] $Module ) $HelpInfoNamespace = @{helpInfo='http://schemas.microsoft.com/powershell/help/2010/05'} if ($Module) { $Modules = Get-Module $Module -ListAvailable | where {$_.HelpInfoUri} } else { $Modules = Get-Module -ListAvailable | where {$_.HelpInfoUri} } foreach ($mModule in $Modules) { $mDir = $mModule.ModuleBase if (Test-Path $mdir\*helpinfo.xml) { $mName=$mModule.Name $mNodes = dir $mdir\*helpinfo.xml -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Xml -Namespace $HelpInfoNamespace -XPath "//helpInfo:UICulture" foreach ($mNode in $mNodes) { $mCulture=$mNode.Node.UICultureName $mVer=$mNode.Node.UICultureVersion [pscustomobject]@{"ModuleName"=$mName; "Culture"=$mCulture; "Version"=$mVer} } } }Identify

Its page in the reference: Update-Help.

Parameters

11 in the PowerShell reference
-CredentialSpecifies credentials of a user who has permission to access the file system location specified by SourcePath. This parameter is valid only when the SourcePath or LiteralPath parameter is used in the command. The Credential parameter enables you to run Update-Help commands with the SourcePath parameter on remote computers. By providing explicit credentials, you can run the command on a remote computer and access a file share on a third computer without encountering an access denied error or using CredSSP authentication to delegate credentials. Credentials are stored in a PSCredential object and the password is stored as a SecureString. NOTE: For more information about SecureString data protection, see How secure is SecureString?.
-ForceIndicates that this cmdlet doesn't follow the once-per-day limitation, skips version checking, and downloads files that exceed the 1 GB limit. Without this parameter, Update-Help runs only once in each 24-hour period. Downloads are limited to 1 GB of uncompressed content per module and help files are only installed when they're newer than the existing files on the computer. The once-per-day limit protects the servers that host the help files and makes it practical for you to add an Update-Help command to your PowerShell profile without incurring the resource cost of repeated connections or downloads. To update help for a module in multiple UI cultures without the Force parameter, include all UI cultures in the same command, such as: Update-Help -Module PSScheduledJobs -UICulture en-US, fr-FR, pt-BR
-FullyQualifiedModuleThe value can be a module name, a full module specification, or a path to a module file. When the value is a path, the path can be fully qualified or relative. A relative path is resolved relative to the script that contains the using statement. When the value is a name or module specification, PowerShell searches the PSModulePath for the specified module. A module specification is a hashtable that has the following keys. - ModuleName - Required Specifies the module name. - GUID - Optional Specifies the GUID of the module. - It's also Required to specify at least one of the three below keys. - ModuleVersion - Specifies a minimum acceptable version of the module. - MaximumVersion - Specifies the maximum acceptable version of the module. - RequiredVersion - Specifies an exact, required version of the module. This can't be used with the other Version keys. You can't specify the FullyQualifiedModule parameter in the same command as a Module parameter.
-LiteralPathSpecifies the folder for updated help files instead of downloading them from the internet. Use this parameter or SourcePath if you've used the Save-Help cmdlet to download help files to a directory. You can pipeline a directory object, such as from the Get-Item or Get-ChildItem cmdlets, to Update-Help. Unlike the value of SourcePath, the value of LiteralPath is used exactly as it's typed. No characters are interpreted as wildcard characters. If the path includes escape characters, enclose it in single quotation marks. Single quotation marks tell PowerShell not to interpret any characters as escape sequences.
-ModuleUpdates help for the specified modules. Enter one or more module names or name patterns in a comma-separated list, or specify a file that lists one module name on each line. Wildcard characters are permitted. You can pipeline modules from the Get-Module cmdlet to the Update-Help cmdlet. The modules that you specify must be installed on the computer, but they don't have to be imported into the current session. You can specify any module in the session or any module that's installed in a location listed in the $Env:PSModulePath environment variable. A value of * (all) attempts to update help for all modules that are installed on the computer. Modules that don't support Updatable Help are included. This value might generate errors when the command encounters modules that don't support Updatable Help. Instead, run Update-Help without parameters. The Module parameter of the Update-Help cmdlet doesn't accept the full path of a module file or module manifest file. To update help for a module that isn't in a $Env:PSModulePath location, import the module into the current session before you run the Update-Help command.
-RecursePerforms a recursive search for help files in the specified directory. This parameter is valid only when the command uses the SourcePath parameter.
-SourcePathSpecifies a file system folder where Update-Help gets updated help files, instead of downloading them from the internet. Enter the path of a folder. Don't specify a file name or file name extension. You can pipeline a folder, such as one from the Get-Item or Get-ChildItem cmdlets, to Update-Help. By default, Update-Help downloads updated help files from the internet. Use SourcePath when you've used the Save-Help cmdlet to download updated help files to a directory. To specify a default value for SourcePath, go to Group Policy, Computer Configuration, and Set the default source path for Update-Help. This Group Policy setting prevents users from using Update-Help to download help files from the internet. For more information, see about_Group_Policy_Settings.
-UICultureSpecifies UI culture values that Update-Help uses to get updated help files. Enter one or more language codes, such as es-ES, a variable containing culture objects, or a command that gets culture objects, such as a Get-Culture or Get-UICulture command. Wildcard characters aren't permitted and you can't submit a partial language code, such as de. By default, Update-Help gets help files in the UI culture set for the operating system. If you specify the UICulture parameter, Update-Help looks for help only for the specified UI culture. Commands that use the UICulture parameter succeed only when the module provides help files for the specified UI culture. If the command fails because the specified UI culture isn't supported, an error message is displayed.
-UseDefaultCredentialsIndicates that Update-Help runs the command, including the internet download, using the credentials of the current user. By default, the command runs without explicit credentials. This parameter is effective only when the web download uses NT LAN Manager (NTLM), negotiate, or Kerberos-based authentication.
-ConfirmPrompts you for confirmation before running the cmdlet.
-WhatIfShows what would happen if the cmdlet runs. The cmdlet isn't run.

See also

Get-Culture · Get-Help · Get-Module · Get-UICulture · Start-Job · Save-Help