updateEverything

A single PowerShell script that keeps your entire Windows machine up to date — package managers, system components, and dev toolchains — in one run.

Quick start

# Run from the script directory. Admin rights give the full experience.
.\updatescript.ps1

# Auto-elevate to admin if not already elevated
.\updatescript.ps1 -AutoElevate

# Preview what would be updated without making any changes
.\updatescript.ps1 -DryRun

# Fast run: skips slower managers (Chocolatey, pip, npm, Rust, etc.)
.\updatescript.ps1 -FastMode

What it updates

Category	Tools
Package managers	Winget, Scoop, Chocolatey
System	Windows Update, Microsoft Store apps, WSL distros, Windows Defender signatures
JavaScript	npm, pnpm, bun, deno, Volta, fnm, mise
Python	pip (top-level packages only), uv, uv tools, uv Python versions, pipx, Poetry
Systems languages	Rust + cargo binaries, Go
.NET	dotnet tools, dotnet workloads
Other runtimes	Flutter, Ruby gems, Composer, juliaup
Dev tools	VS Code extensions, GitHub CLI extensions, git-lfs, git-credential-manager, oh-my-posh, yt-dlp, tldr
Cleanup	Temp files, DNS cache, Recycle Bin (optional deep clean)

Speed modes

Mode	What it skips
(default)	Nothing
-FastMode	Chocolatey, WSL distros, npm, pnpm, bun, deno, Rust, Go, pip, uv, VS Code extensions, PowerShell modules, and more slow steps
-UltraFast	Everything FastMode skips + Windows Update, Store apps, WSL, cleanup

DryRun and WhatChanged

-DryRun prints every action the script would take without executing anything — useful for reviewing before a first run or after changes.

-WhatChanged shows a summary of what was actually updated at the end of the run — helpful for changelogs or audit logs.

.\updatescript.ps1 -DryRun
.\updatescript.ps1 -WhatChanged

Configuration file

Drop an update-config.json next to the script to customize behavior without command-line flags:

{
  "WingetSkipPackages": ["Microsoft.VisualStudio.BuildTools"],
  "PipSkipPackages": ["some-pinned-package"],
  "PipIgnoreHealthPackages": ["internal-package"],
  "WingetTimeoutSec": 600,
  "LogRetentionDays": 14
}

Supported keys mirror the $script:Config hashtable in the script. Any key set here overrides the default.

Scheduled daily runs

# Register a Windows Scheduled Task to run at 3 AM daily (requires admin)
.\updatescript.ps1 -AutoElevate -Schedule -ScheduleTime "03:00"

The scheduled task runs with -SkipReboot -NoPause -SkipWSL -SkipWindowsUpdate so it completes unattended.

All parameters

Parameter	Description
-DryRun	Show what would run, make no changes
-WhatChanged	Print summary of updates at end
-AutoElevate	Re-launch as Administrator automatically
-NoElevate	Force run without elevation (some steps skipped)
-FastMode	Skip slow optional tools
-UltraFast	Skip everything FastMode does + system tasks
-NoPause	Don't wait for keypress at end
-SkipWindowsUpdate	Skip Windows Update
-SkipReboot	Never prompt to reboot
-SkipDestructive	Skip actions that modify system state
-SkipWSL	Skip WSL update
-SkipWSLDistros	Skip updating WSL distros
-SkipDefender	Skip Defender signature update
-SkipStoreApps	Skip Microsoft Store app updates
-SkipNode	Skip Node.js ecosystem (npm, pnpm, bun, deno, Volta, fnm, mise)
-SkipRust	Skip Rust + cargo binaries
-SkipGo	Skip Go
-SkipFlutter	Skip Flutter
-SkipGitLFS	Skip git-lfs
-SkipUVTools	Skip uv tool upgrade
-SkipVSCodeExtensions	Skip VS Code extension updates
-SkipPoetry	Skip Poetry
-SkipComposer	Skip Composer
-SkipRuby	Skip Ruby gems
-SkipPowerShellModules	Skip PowerShell module updates
-SkipCleanup	Skip all cleanup steps
-DeepClean	Run extra cleanup (Downloads age check, prefetch, event logs)
-UpdateOllamaModels	Pull updates for installed Ollama models
-Schedule	Register as a daily scheduled task
-ScheduleTime	Time for scheduled task (default: 03:00)
-LogPath	Custom log file path
-WingetTimeoutSec	Per-package winget timeout in seconds (default: 300)
-ParallelThrottle	Max parallel jobs 1–10 (default: auto from CPU count)

Requirements

• Windows 10 or 11
• PowerShell 7+ recommended (falls back to Windows PowerShell 5.1)
• Administrator rights recommended for full functionality
• PSWindowsUpdate module for Windows Update (Install-Module PSWindowsUpdate)

Helper scripts

Script	Purpose
fix_installer.ps1	Repairs broken Windows Installer (MSI) source cache entries
force_reinstall.ps1	Force-reinstalls a winget package when normal upgrade fails

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

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See CHANGELOG.md for version history.