Update-Help PowerShell Get-Help Output

This is the built-in help made by Microsoft for the command 'Update-Help', in PowerShell version 3 - as retrieved from Windows version 'Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Standard' PowerShell help files on 2016-06-23.

For PowerShell version 3 and up, where you have Update-Help, this command was run just before creating the web pages from the help files.

SYNOPSIS

SYNTAX

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

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DESCRIPTION

The Update-Help cmdlet downloads the newest help files for Windows PowerShell modules and installs them on your computer. You can use the
Get-Help cmdlet to view the new help files immediately; you do not need to restart Windows PowerShell to make the change effective. This
feature enables you to install help files for modules that do not include them and to update help files on your computer so that they never
become obsolete.

The Update-Help cmdlet checks the version of the help files on your computer. If you do not have help files for a module or do not have the
newest help files for a module, Update-Help downloads the newest help files from the Internet or a file share and installs them on your
computer in the correct module folder.

Without parameters, Update-Help updates the help for modules in the session and for all installed modules (in a PSModulePath location) that
support Updatable Help, even if the module is not in the current session. You can also use the Module parameter to update help for a
particular module and use the UICulture parameter to download help files in multiple languages and locales.

You can use Update-Help even on computers that are not connected to the Internet. Use the Save-Help cmdlet to download help files from the
Internet and save them in a file system location, such as a shared folder or file system directory. Then use the SourcePath parameter of
Update-Help to get the updated help files from a file system location and install them on the computer.

You can even automate the running of Update-Help by adding an Update-Help command to your Windows PowerShell profile. By default, Update-Help
runs only once per day on each computer. To override the once-per-day limit, use the Force parameter.

To download or update the help files for modules in the Windows PowerShell installation directory ($pshome\Modules), including the Windows
PowerShell Core modules, start Windows PowerShell with the "Run as administrator" option. You must be a member of the Administrators group on
the computer to update the help files for these modules.

You can also update help files by using the "Update Windows PowerShell Help" menu item in the Help menu in Windows PowerShell Integrated
Scripting Environment (ISE). The "Update Windows PowerShell Help" item runs an Update-Help command without parameters. To update help for
modules in the $PSHome directory, start Windows PowerShell ISE with the "Run as administrator" option.

This cmdlet is introduced in Windows PowerShell 3.0.

RELATED LINKS

REMARKS

Examples

Example 1: Update help for all modules

PS C:\>Update-Help

This command updates help for all installed modules that support Updatable Help in the language specified by the UI culture that is set for
Windows.

To run this command, start Windows PowerShell with the "Run as administrator" option (Start-Process PowerShell -Verb RunAs).

Example 2: Update help for specified modules

PS C:\>Update-Help -Module ServerManager, Microsoft.PowerShell*

This command updates help only for the ServerManager module and for modules that have names that begin with "Microsoft.PowerShell".

Because these modules are in the $pshome\Modules directory, to run this command, start Windows PowerShell with the "Run as administrator"
option.

Example 3: Update help in different languages

PS C:\>Update-Help –UICulture ja-JP, en-US
Update-Help : Failed to update Help for the module(s) 'ServerManager' with UI culture(s) {ja-JP} :
The specified culture is not supported: ja-JP. Specify a culture from the following list: {en-US}.

This command updates the Japanese and English help files for all modules.

If a module currently does not provide help files for the specified UI culture, the error message lists the UI cultures that the module
supports. In this example, the error message indicates that the ServerManager module currently provides help files only in en-US.

Example 4: Update help automatically

PS C:\>Register-ScheduledJob -Name UpdateHelpJob -Credential Domain01\User01 -ScriptBlock {Update-Help} -Trigger (New-JobTrigger -Daily -At "3
AM")
Id Name JobTriggers Command Enabled
-- ---- ----------- ------- -------
1 UpdateHelpJob 1 Update-Help True

This command creates a scheduled job that updates help for all modules on the computer every day at 3:00 in the morning.

The command uses the Register-ScheduledJob cmdlet to create a scheduled job that runs an Update-Help command. The command uses the Credential
parameter to run the Update-Help cmdlet with the credentials of a member of the Administrators group on the computer. The value of the Trigger
parameter is a New-JobTrigger command that creates a job trigger that starts the job every day at 3:00 AM.

To run the Register-ScheduledJob command, start Windows PowerShell with the "Run as administrator" option. When you run the command, Windows
PowerShell prompts you for the password of the user specified in the value of the Credential parameter. The credentials are stored with the
scheduled job; you are not prompted when the job runs.

You can use the Get-ScheduledJob cmdlet to view the scheduled job, use the Set-ScheduledJob cmdlet to change it, and use the
Unregister-ScheduledJob cmdlet to delete it. You can also view and manage the scheduled job in Task Scheduler in the following path: Task
Scheduler Library\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\ScheduledJobs.

Example 5: Update help on multiple computers from a file share

The first command uses the Save-Help cmdlet to download the newest help files for all modules that support Updatable Help. The command saves
the downloaded help files in the \\Server01\Share\PSHelp file share.The command uses the Credential parameter of the Save-Help cmdlet to
specify the credentials of a user who has permission to access the remote file share. By default, the command does not run with explicit
credentials and attempts to access the file share might fail.
PS C:\>Save-Help –DestinationPath \\Server01\Share\PSHelp -Credential Domain01\Admin01

The second command uses the Invoke-Command cmdlet to run Update-Help commands on many computers remotely.The Invoke-Command command gets the
list of computers from the Servers.txt file. The Update-Help command installs the help files from the file share on all of the remote
computers. The remote computer must be able to access the file share at the specified path.The Update-Help command uses the SourcePath
parameter to get the updated help files from the file share, instead of the Internet, and the Credential parameter to run the command with
explicit credentials. By default, the command runs with network token privileges and attempts to access the file share from each remote
computer (a "second hop") might fail.
PS C:\>Invoke-Command –ComputerName (Get-Content Servers.txt) –ScriptBlock {Update-Help –SourcePath \\Server01\Share\Help -Credential
Domain01\Admin01}

These commands download updated help files for system modules from the Internet and save them in file share. Then the commands install the
updated help files from the file share on multiple computers. You can use a strategy like the one shown here to update the help files on
numerous computers, even those that are behind firewalls or are not connected to the Internet.

All of the commands in this example were run in a Windows PowerShell session that was started with the "Run as administrator" option.

Example 6: Get a List of Updated Help Files

PS C:\>Update-Help –Module BestPractices, ServerManager -Verbose

This command updates help for two modules. It uses the Verbose common parameter of the Update-Help cmdlet to get a list of the help files that
the command updated.

Without the Verbose parameter, Update-Help does not display the results of the command. The Verbose parameter is especially useful when you
need to verify that you have updated help files for a particular module or a particular locale.

Example 7: Find modules that support Updatable Help

PS C:\>Get-Module -ListAvailable | Where HelpInfoUri

This command gets modules that support Updatable Help.

The command uses the HelpInfoUri property of modules to identify modules that support Updatable Help. The value of the HelpInfoUri property
contains the address of the Internet location where the module stores its Updatable Help information file.

This command uses the simplified syntax of the Where-Object cmdlet. This syntax is introduced in Windows PowerShell 3.0.

Example 8: Inventory updated help files

PS C:\>
#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}
}
}
}

ModuleName Culture Version

---------- ------- -------

ActiveDirectory en-US 3.0.0.0

ADCSAdministration en-US 3.0.0.0

ADCSDeployment en-US 3.0.0.0

ADDSDeployment en-US 3.0.0.0

ADFS en-US 3.0.0.0

…

The Get-UpdateHelpVersion.ps1 script creates an inventory of the Updatable Help files for each module and their version numbers. Copy the
script and paste it in a text file.

The script identifies modules that support Updatable Help by using the HelpInfoUri property of modules. For modules that support Updatable
Help, the script looks for and parses the help information file (HelpInfo XML) to find the latest version number.

The script uses the PSCustomObject class and a hash table to create a custom output object.