Author Archives: Scott

Using the Job Queue to Clear ‘All Messages’ Before Executing a New Action

By Scott | Published: April 23, 2020

Some of our users launch a fresh instance of BatchPatch each time they use it, and they start with a brand new grid (or a set of grids) each time. They load their hosts and then begin patching. However, some of our users prefer to re-use the same grid file (.bps) over and over and […]

Posted in Blog, General, Tutorials | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Preventing Particular Updates from Installing on Target Computers

By Scott | Published: April 10, 2020

Under normal circumstances BatchPatch is used to initiate the download and/or installation of updates on a group of target computers. So long as you have setup your environment to work with BatchPatch as far as permissions and firewall settings are concerned, then BatchPatch can, if desired, be used without altering your existing Windows Update settings. […]

Posted in Blog, General, Tutorials | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Incorporating Custom Scripts in BatchPatch – Get Local Administrators Group Membership

By Scott | Published: March 19, 2020

Let’s have a look at how to incorporate a custom script into BatchPatch. In this case we’ll use BatchPatch to run a script that will retrieve the list of users who are members of the local administrators group on each target computer, and then optionally write it all to a text file. If you would […]

Posted in Blog, General, Tutorials | Tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Remotely Uninstalling Windows Updates

By Scott | Published: March 10, 2020

Let’s face it… even though we all wish Microsoft’s quality assurance and testing was better, it really seems to have gotten worse in recent years… significantly worse. There are a few primary ways that systems administrators can reduce the likelihood of encountering problems after installing Windows updates each month. First, have a testing lab setup […]

Posted in Blog, General, Tutorials | Tagged , | Comments closed

Using the Job Queue to Execute an Ordered List of Actions on Target Computers

By Scott | Published: February 26, 2020

One of the most commonly used features in BatchPatch is the Job Queue. The Job Queue enables you to execute a series of actions, sequentially, on target hosts. Just about any action that BatchPatch can perform through manual execution can also be added to a job queue. One of the most common reasons people use […]

Posted in Blog, General, Tutorials | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Notify Users of Upcoming Reboot or other Patching Activity

By Scott | Published: February 19, 2020

When a systems administrator is performing a maintenance operation on end-user computers, one of the things that can really help significantly is being able to notify any currently logged-on users of any impending actions that are about to occur. Even if it’s a late-night or early-morning maintenance window, you never really know who might actually […]

Posted in Blog, General, Tutorials | Tagged , | Comments closed

Offline Windows Patching for Isolated or Air-Gapped Networks

By Scott | Published: February 4, 2020

Applying Windows security updates to a network that is isolated from or completely air-gapped from the primary network can be a challenge and a pain. At the very least it means that you, the sysadmin, have to devise a patching plan for multiple networks. However, it also means that you need a way to figure […]

Posted in Blog, General | Tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

Automatically Trigger an Email Notification for an Entire Grid Only After All Targets’ Actions Have Completed

By Scott | Published: January 28, 2020

There are different ways to utilize email notifications in BatchPatch. For example this link illustrates how to schedule email notifications or include them inside job queues. Additionally we have a couple of other tutorials on email notifications here and here. Today I would like to address a particular scenario for triggering email notifications that some […]

Posted in Blog, General, Tutorials | Tagged , | Comments closed

A Utility to Schedule Windows Updates on Numerous Computers

By Scott | Published: January 14, 2020

When we first created BatchPatch it was intended to be used primarily as a real-time utility, where an administrator could initiate the download and installation process for Windows Updates on many target computers at the same time, while also being able to monitor the progress of each action on every computer all the way through […]

Posted in Blog, General, Tutorials | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Say Goodbye to Remote Desktop for Patch Management

By Scott | Published: January 8, 2020

Sometimes I forget just how many systems administrators are still using Remote Desktop to connect individually and manually to each and every computer on their network via Remote Desktop in order to manually install Windows Updates or third party software applications. The process often goes something like this: Sample Manual Update Process ::Maintenance window begins […]

Posted in Blog, General | Tagged , , , | Comments closed