Windows & DOS: Issues & Discussions

I'm not much for admin work on XP. In my new job though I am to look after all the machines in the office (Windows) between everything else I have to do

What I would like to know is whats the best way to deploy patches out to other Windows XP machines. I can use my computer as a server like feature to deploy them. But what method would be used to deploy and install them? Like install all the latest security patches (I know I'll be doing nothing but patches then).

I don't really want user interaction to be usedif it can be helped.


Cheers & thanks for you help in advance

Not sure myself, however having said that I'd search the MS Knowledge Base for information related to Network/Security and Deployment.

You should get something out of a search.

When we had to patch and SP a ton of Win2K machines, we used LANGuard (http://www.gfi.com/languard/) which comes (or did come) with a patch deployment agent. It installed the patches (which required a reboot), and we let it reboot at the end of the day. Nice.

You can use Group Policy to make software available, but the client still has to install them manually. I know that MS SMS will allow you to deploy patches, etc, but for all of that you need a Windows 2000 or 2003 server. At least with LANGuard you can just run it from an "administrative" workstation.

Cheers
ZB