Viewing WSUS Reports

WSUS includes a rich set of reporting capabilities. You can create summary and detailed reports based on updates or based on computers and also view reports of synchronization results.

The report for a Windows 7 PC managed by WSUS. The report was created by right-clicking the computer and selecting Status Report. The first page provides summary data, and the following pages list all of the updates, their approval status, and their installation status.

If you select the Reports node, it allows you to create reports on all of the updates and all of the computers. It also includes the ability to create the reports in a tabular format, which can easily be displayed in a Microsoft Excel worksheet. All of the reports can also be saved in a PDF format if desired.

WSUS is feature rich, especially considering that it's a free product. It provides administrators with any easy-to-learn and easy-to-use tool that gives them better administrative control over updates in the enterprise.

While this section covered some of the basics of WSUS, the goal was to help you realize the benefits of using it. The goal wasn't to teach you everything you need to know about WSUS but instead to help you get started. If it's the right product for you and your enterprise, you can start with what you've learned here. But you need to realize that there's more to WSUS than what we've covered here.