Deploying patches in silent mode - how bad idea that is ?

[Marlon Brown]

I have about 2,000 users and I need to deploy those monster list of patches
that MS just released.

Is that a good idea if I do a silent install upon login to my Win2K and
WinxpSP1 users ? If it is running in silent install users will be launching
applications concurrently and I am wondering what could happen then.

REM THIS IS FOR WINXP
@echo off
setlocal
set PATHTOFIXES="\\myserver\tools\qchain\WINXPSP1"


%PATHTOFIXES%\WindowsXP-KB823182-x86-ENU.exe /u /q
%PATHTOFIXES%\WindowsXP-KB824141-x86-ENU.exe /u /q
%PATHTOFIXES%\WindowsXP-KB825119-x86-ENU.exe /u /q
%PATHTOFIXES%\WindowsXP-KB828035-x86-ENU.exe /u /q
%PATHTOFIXES%\qchain.exe

 

[Oli Restorick [MVP]]

By doing it with login scripts, you need to have all your users running as
administrators, which may not be a great idea.

Have you had a look at Software Update Services? That may be your best
option, given that your clients are 2000 and XP.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/sus/default.mspx

Regards

Oli

 

[Michael Bednarek]

I have about 2,000 users and I need to deploy those monster list of patches
that MS just released.

Is that a good idea if I do a silent install upon login to my Win2K and
WinxpSP1 users ? If it is running in silent install users will be launching
applications concurrently and I am wondering what could happen then.

[snip]

I do this here using Machine Startup Scripts, before user logins. They run
under the SYSTEM account. You need to ensure that Domain Computers have
access to the network share where your patches are.