Update-Help

Syntax

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

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

Description

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 If you don't have help files for a module or if your help files are outdated, Update-Help downloads the newest help files.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.

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.

Examples

Example 1: Update help files for all modules

The Update-Help cmdlet updates help files for installed modules that support Updatable Help. The user-interface (UI) culture language is set in the operating system.

Update-Help

Example 2: Update help files for specified modules

The Update-Help cmdlet updates help files only for module names that begin with Microsoft.PowerShell.

Update-Help -Module Microsoft.PowerShell*

Example 3: Updating help on a system not set to the en-US locale

The Update-Help cmdlet is designed to download help in multiple languages. However, when there is no help available for the language your system uses, Update-Help fails silently unless you use the UICulture parameter.

In this example, Update-Help is being run on a system that's set to the en-GB locale.

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

Update-Help: Failed to update Help for the module(s) 'Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility' with
UI culture(s) {en-GB} : The specified culture is not supported: en-GB. Specify a culture
from the following list: {en-US}..
English-US help content is available and can be installed using: Update-Help -UICulture en-US.

The help files are always published for the en-US locale. To download the English help, run Update-Help with the UICulture parameter and specify the en-US locale.

Example 4: Update help files on multiple computers from a file share

In this example, updated help files are downloaded from the internet and saved in a file share. User credentials are needed that have permissions to access the file share and install updates. When a file share is used, it's possible to update computers that are behind firewalls or aren't connected to the internet.

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
}

The Save-Help command downloads the newest help files for all modules that support Updatable Help. The DestinationPath parameter saves the files in the \\Server01\Share\PSHelp file share. The Credential parameter specifies a user who has permission to access the file share.

The Invoke-Command cmdlet runs remote Update-Help commands on multiple computers. The ComputerName parameter gets a list of remote computers from the Servers.txt file. The ScriptBlock parameter runs the Update-Help command and uses the SourcePath parameter to specify the file share containing the updated help files. The Credential parameter specifies a user who can access the file share and run the remote Update-Help command.

Example 5: Get a list of updated help files

The Update-Help cmdlet updates help for a specified module. The cmdlet uses the Verbose common parameter to display the list of help files that were updated. You can use Verbose to view output for all help files or help files for a specific module.

Without the Verbose parameter, Update-Help doesn't display the results of the command. The Verbose parameter output is useful to verify that the help files were updated or if the latest version is installed.

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

Example 6: Find modules that support Updatable Help

This example lists modules that support Updatable Help. The command uses the module's HelpInfoUri property to identify modules that support Updatable Help. The HelpInfoUri property contains a URL that's redirected when the Update-Help cmdlet is run.

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

Directory: C:\program files\powershell\6\Modules

ModuleType Version    Name                                PSEdition ExportedCommands
---------- -------    ----                                --------- ----------------
Manifest   6.1.0.0    CimCmdlets                          Core      {Get-CimAssociatedInstance... }
Manifest   1.2.2.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.Archive        Desk      {Compress-Archive... }
Manifest   6.1.0.0    Microsoft.PowerShell.Diagnostics    Core      {Get-WinEvent, New-WinEvent}

    Directory: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules

ModuleType Version    Name                                PSEdition ExportedCommands
---------- -------    ----                                --------- ----------------
Manifest   2.0.1.0    Appx                                Core,Desk {Add-AppxPackage, ... }
Script     1.0.0.0    AssignedAccess                      Core,Desk {Clear-AssignedAccess, ... }
Manifest   1.0.0.0    BitLocker                           Core,Desk {Unlock-BitLocker, ... }

Example 7: Inventory updated help files

In this example, the script Get-UpdateHelpVersion.ps1 creates an inventory of the Updatable Help files for each module and their version numbers.

The script identifies modules that support Updatable Help 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.

# 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

Parameters

-Confirm

-Credential

-Force

-FullyQualifiedModule

-LiteralPath

-Module

-Recurse

-Scope

-SourcePath

-UICulture

-UseDefaultCredentials

-WhatIf

Inputs

DirectoryInfo

You can pipe a directory path object to this cmdlet.

PSModuleInfo

You can pipe a module object to this cmdlet.

Outputs

None

This cmdlet returns no output.

Notes

To update help for the core PowerShell modules, that contain the commands that are installed with PowerShell, or any module in the $PSHOME\Modules directory, start PowerShell with the option to Run as administrator.

Only members of the Administrators group on the computer can update help for the core PowerShell modules, the commands that are installed together with PowerShell, and for modules in the $PSHOME\Modules folder. If you don't have permission to update help files, you can read the help files online. For example, Get-Help Update-Help -Online.

Modules are the smallest unit of updatable help. You can't update help for a particular cmdlet. To find the module containing a particular cmdlet, use the ModuleName property of the Get-Command cmdlet, for example, (Get-Command Update-Help).ModuleName.

Because help files are installed in the module directory, the Update-Help cmdlet can install updated help file only for modules that are installed on the computer. However, the Save-Help cmdlet can save help for modules that aren't installed on the computer.

The Update-Help cmdlet was introduced in Windows PowerShell 3.0. It doesn't work in earlier versions of PowerShell. On computers that have both Windows PowerShell 2.0 and Windows PowerShell 3.0, use the Update-Help cmdlet in a Windows PowerShell 3.0 session to download and update help files. The help files are available to both Windows PowerShell 2.0 and Windows PowerShell 3.0.

The Update-Help and Save-Help cmdlets use the following ports to download help files: Port 80 for HTTP and port 443 for HTTPS.

Update-Help supports all modules and the core PowerShell snap-ins. It doesn't support any other snap-ins.

To update help for a module in a location that isn't listed in the $env:PSModulePath environment variable, import the module into the current session and then run an Update-Help command. Run Update-Help without parameters or use the Module parameter to specify the module name. The Module parameter of the Update-Help and Save-Help cmdlets doesn't accept the full path of a module file or module manifest file.

Any module can support Updatable Help. For instructions for supporting Updatable Help in the modules that you author, see Supporting Updatable Help.

The Update-Help and Save-Help cmdlets aren't supported on Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE).

Related Links

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