topic Windows update in Operating System - Microsoft

Windows update

John Orme — Sat, 07 Feb 2004 16:12:32 GMT

Hi,

Is there a good utility (not too expensive) that automatically performs a background unattended update for windows desktops? Ideally (the idea I have in my head) we would have a server which downloads all of the patches from windows update then checks all the network machines and updates as apropriate without the user being involved or me having to visit each users desktop. At the moment I have to PCAnywhere to a user and start Windows Update which means the user is unable to use their PC for an hour or so. Any suggestions would be most appriciated.

Thanks

Johno (a fledgling network manager)

Re: Windows update

Roger Faucher — Sat, 07 Feb 2004 20:55:39 GMT

John:

Here's a starting point:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/sus/default.mspx

You can create a Microsoft Software Update Server on your network to do what you want.

HTH

Roger

Re: Windows update

Jon Finley — Sat, 07 Feb 2004 22:55:45 GMT

SMS (Systems Management Server) along with the SUS (Software Update Services) server pretty much covers everything you want to do. The nice part about SUS is that it's free.

More SUS info:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=38D7E99B-E780-43E5-AA84-CDF6450D8F99&displaylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/smserver/evaluation/datasheets/PatchDeploy.asp

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/proddocs/deployguide/dmebh_sus_liwx.asp

SMS info:

http://www.microsoft.com/smserver/default.asp

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=959EE7D6-7DDF-409A-9522-7D270BDCF12A&displaylang=en

Jon

Re: Windows update

Thomas Dietrich — Mon, 09 Feb 2004 10:18:27 GMT

I use HFNetChkPro, which is what Microsoft built their SUS on. HFNetChkPro is more robust than MS SUS in that it not only scans for and provides Windows updates, but it also scans for and provides MS Office updates, NT updates, Exchange updates, and others. When I began using the product they allowed up to 100 machines to be updated without buying any licenses for HFNetChkPro 4.0, but that may have changed. You can download the tool at http://www.hfnetchkpro.com
It consistently receives the User's Favorite award from MCP magazine, and I have found it to be very capable and robust. You can even send a message to the user's PC while the updates are being performed, and decide whether to reboot or not, or leave that option to the user, etc.

The other option is to configure Windows Update to run automatically on each PC at say 11:00 AM or 12:00 Noon so that it updates itself while the user goes out to lunch.

Re: Windows update

John Orme — Thu, 12 Feb 2004 10:52:43 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for all the information. I have installed SUS and it works quite well. I am just trying to get a new server to run it all signed off! the other software looks really good but it is a bit on the expensive size for us but it looks great for installing other programs too.

Thanks once again.

Johno