Blender auto-updater Powershell script. Check the Readme section (after license) for instructions. Use at your own risk.

blender-update.ps1

# MIT License

# Copyright (c) 2019 Keith Boshoff (Wahooney)

# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
# of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
# in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
# to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
# copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
# furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
# copies or substantial portions of the Software.

# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
# IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
# AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
# LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
# OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
# SOFTWARE.

# READ ME

# History
# 2019/09/05 - Fixed download issue related to Blender changing the name of the zip

# Place in a non-root folder (ie. C:\Apps) for best results.
# This requires 7-zip

# The process:

# * Download the latest blender-4.4x zip from the nightly builder site.
# * Close all open blender instances (this is essential)
# * Delete old blender version
# * Unzip new blender version



########################################################################################################################

# change these variables to suit your needs

# 7-ZIP location
$pathTo7Zip = 'C:\Program Files\7-zip'

# current version do check for
$blenderVersion = 'blender-4.4'
$blenderMinorVersion = ''

# folder to install blender into, ie. C:\blender-4.4
$blenderInstallLocation = 'C:\'

# folder this script will operate in
$blenderWorkingPath = 'C:\Apps\'



########################################################################################################################

# Here be dragons: don't touch these unless you know what you're doing

# establish environment
$env:Path = $env:Path + ';' + $pathTo7Zip

# Let's get a window foregrounder going
Add-Type @"
using System; using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
public class SFW { [DllImport("user32.dll")][return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]public static extern bool SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hWnd); }
"@

$blenderZip = $blenderVersion + '.zip'
$blenderZipFolderPath = $blenderVersion + "*"
$blenderInstallPath = $blenderInstallLocation + $blenderVersion
$blenderZipPath = $blenderWorkingPath + $blenderZip
$blenderSearchString = '*' + $blenderVersion + $blenderMinorVersion + '*-*-win*amd64*.zip?'

# set working folder
Set-Location -Path $blenderWorkingPath

# get blender download page
$blender = Invoke-WebRequest -uri https://builder.blender.org/download/

Write-Host $blenderSearchString;

# find win64 build
$links = $blender.Links | select href | Where-Object { $_ -like $blenderSearchString }

# remove old zip file
if (Test-Path $blenderZip) { Remove-Item -Path $blenderZip }

Write-Host "";
Write-Host -NoNewLine "    Downloading ";
Write-Host $links[0].href;
Write-Host "";

# download file
Invoke-WebRequest -uri ($links[-1].href) -OutFile $blenderZipPath
# Invoke-WebRequest -uri ('https://builder.blender.org' + $links[-1].href) -OutFile $blenderZipPath

# kill all running blender instances
$blenderProcess = Get-Process blender -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
while ($blenderProcess)
{
    $bid = $blenderProcess.id
    [SFW]::SetForegroundWindow($blenderProcess.MainWindowHandle) > $out
    $blenderProcess.CloseMainWindow() > $out
    Write-Host '[WAITING] Close all instances of Blender to continue...';
    Wait-Process -Id $bid    

    [SFW]::SetForegroundWindow((Get-Process -Id $pid).MainWindowHandle) > $out
    $blenderProcess = Get-Process blender -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}

# unzip file
7z x $blenderZipPath $blenderZipFolderPath

# find new folder
$folder = (Get-ChildItem | Where-Object {$_.Name -like 'blender*' -and ($_.Mode -eq 'd-----')} | select Name)[0].Name

# remove old folder
if (Test-Path $blenderInstallPath) { Remove-Item -Path $blenderInstallPath -Force -Recurse }

# sanitize current folder
if ($folder -ne $blenderVersion) { Rename-Item -Path $folder -NewName $blenderVersion }

# move new folder
Move-Item -Path $blenderVersion -Destination $blenderInstallLocation

# wait for input
Write-Host -NoNewLine 'Press any key to continue...';
$null = $Host.UI.RawUI.ReadKey('NoEcho,IncludeKeyDown');