Category Archives: Blog

Uninstall Windows Updates Remotely

By Scott | Published: February 4, 2016

It seems like in the past year or so there has been a pretty significant need to remotely uninstall Windows Updates after discovering that a particular update has caused a problem in one’s environment. Unfortunately it’s often the case that even after testing updates in a lab environment, upon final deployment to production there are […]

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Remotely Deploy Google Chrome to Numerous Computers

By Scott | Published: January 27, 2016

I’ve posted a handful of deployment tutorials in recent months, but I’ve never demonstrated how to remotely install one of the most popular web browsers — Google Chrome. Today I’ll show you how to use BatchPatch to deploy Chrome to many remote computers in just a few clicks. When performing software deployments, I like to […]

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Using BatchPatch as a WSUS Alternative

By Scott | Published: January 14, 2016

One of the questions we regularly receive from users is “What is the best way to use BatchPatch as an alternative to WSUS?” Even though WSUS is free, lightweight, and relatively easy to install and manage, there are certainly cases where administrators don’t already have it and don’t want to deal with installing or managing […]

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Uninstall Skype Remotely

By Scott | Published: January 7, 2016

We are going to uninstall Skype remotely in almost exactly the same way that we installed Skype remotely. Obtain the .msi installer package from http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-msi. In BatchPatch select ‘Actions > Deploy > Create/modify deployment.’ Then choose the deployment options just like my screenshot below. Notice that I have selected the path to the .msi installer, […]

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Remotely Installing Skype on Many Computers

By Scott | Published: January 7, 2016

Installing Skype remotely isn’t much different than installing other applications remotely. Here’s how it goes: Obtain the Skype .msi installer from http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-msi. If you just go to skype.com and choose the “download” option, you will end up with the .exe version of the installer, not the .msi version. And while the .exe version does apparently […]

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Remotely Installing Adobe Air on Multiple Computers

By Scott | Published: December 28, 2015

Today I’d like to demonstrate how to deploy Adobe Air to your entire network of computers in just a few clicks. Obtain the offline installation media for Adobe Air. At the time of this writing, the offline installation media file is posted at the following location: Adobe AIR Offline Installer. Note, you may be required […]

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Reattach Orphaned Remote Windows Update Processes

By Scott | Published: December 15, 2015

In the most recent release of BatchPatch there is a new menu option: Actions > Windows Updates > Reattach orphaned Windows Update process. I want to take a few minutes today to explain exactly what this is and when to use it. As you probably already know, BatchPatch is “agentless” in the sense that it […]

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Notifying Logged-On Users of Impending Reboot or Shutdown

By Scott | Published: December 8, 2015

One of the more frequently requested features from our customers has been to provide the ability to notify the logged-on users of an impending reboot or shutdown. BatchPatch has provided the ability to send notifications to logged-on users for a long time through the ‘Actions > Send message to logged-on users‘ feature. However, in the […]

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Protecting Sensitive Passwords in Saved BatchPatch Grid Files (.bps / .bpt)

By Scott | Published: December 1, 2015

In the November 2015 release of BatchPatch one of the cool new features is password protection with 256-bit AES encryption for your saved .bps / .bpt files. What does this mean? The contents of a .bps / .bpt file can be password encrypted such that after you have applied a password to a particular grid, […]

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Remotely Remove a Problematic Windows Update from Multiple Computers

By Scott | Published: November 18, 2015

It seems to be happening more and more frequently these days. Microsoft releases a Windows Update that causes some type of problem for users, and even though you are a stellar sysadmin with a solid process in place for testing Windows Updates before deploying them to your general user population, your thorough testing process somehow […]

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