What is patch management? Windows Patch Management Windows patch management is the process of managing patches for Windows, from scanning for and detecting missing patches to downloading and deploying them. Deploy Microsoft antivirus definition updates If you're running Microsoft Client Security on your network computers, Patch Manager Plus automates the antivirus definition update mechanism.
How automating the Windows patch management process is beneficial to your enterprise? What are the benefits of Windows patch management? Patch Manager Plus' Windows patch management features help you: Save time and money.
With the APD feature, the whole patching process is automated, from scanning for and deploying patches, to generating patch status reports. Significantly increase your network's security. Many cyberattacks leverage known vulnerabilities to steal data and cause disruptions. Patch known vulnerabilities to secure your network. Deploy the most up-to-date patches. Keep your Windows machines running with the latest Windows patches, so you have access to new features and bug fixes.
What are the patch management best practices? It's easy to create a custom list of your ten favorite apps, say, and have the program set them all up for you on a new PC. And a built-in Uninstaller lets you remove multiple apps in a single operation.
An interesting range of bonus options includes the ability to cache updates in a local folder. Plug the key into other PCs, and if they need the same update, they'll use the cached copy rather than download it again. This experience brings some immediate and very obvious benefits. It counted some of these twice — BlueStacks, PaintShop Pro — so this was a little misleading, but even so, the package still found more applications and updates than anything else we've tried.
We would like to tell you exactly how many apps SUMo supports, but unfortunately, the website doesn't say, and the company didn't give us a figure, either. It seems to work with most of the products you'd expect, though — browsers, Adobe Reader, Flash, more — and a page on the website facilitates searching the database for any apps you particularly need. SUMo's free users won't necessarily be pleased to hear about its wide software support, because there's no support for automatic updates.
All you get is a web page to launch searches for the package on Google and popular download sites. For every update it spots, you must find the correct site, the page, the download, all by yourself. Upgrading to SUMo Pro improves the situation a little, getting you a direct link to the product page for your app. There's still no automatic download and installation, though, and it's expensive for what you get.
Heimdal Free is the software updating module from Heimdal Security's commercial range of security suites. As we write, the package supports updating around apps or around 60, if we exclude those with multiple versions.
The full list is available on the website. Heimdal Free has the same interface as Heimdal's full-strength suites, making it a little bulkier than most of the competition. Our opening screen had four greyed-out areas with 'Upgrade' messages, for instance, and one button which led to the actual updating module, which Thor calls 'X-Ploit Resilience. Even the main Heimdal Free module isn't as straightforward as usual.
There's no Scan button, and we had to check a 'Monitor' option before Heimdal Free looked for updates. And once you get the report, all you can do is tell Heimdal Free to automatically update that package in future, or leave it up to you. There's not a lot of power or configurability here, then, but the few features you do get seem to work very well. Once we checked the Monitor and AutoUpdate boxes for our chosen apps, Heimdal Free automatically detected updates, downloaded and silently installed them in the background, without hassling us in any way.
Npackd is an interesting open source application store for Windows which can help you find, install, update and uninstall a host of popular apps. The package supports an impressive 1, apps at the time of writing.
That's not quite as good as it sounds, because many apps count at least twice for bit and bit downloads, plus many are low-level runtimes rather than applications you actually want to install there are 13 downloads supporting 'WinRT Intellisense', for instance. Still, even if we ruled out all of those, there's a lot more here than you'll see with most of the competition. Launch Npackd and its full catalog appears in a simple table, along with the current version of all apps, and whatever version you have installed.
It's a very long list, but fortunately you can filter it by category Music, Productivity, Security and so on or by entering part of an app name in the Search box. Select one or more apps and you can have Npackd silently install or uninstall them all in a couple of clicks. Choose the 'Updateable' category and Npackd displays every supported app you've installed with a missing patch. Again, select them all, tap Install, and Npackd will quickly run its update tasks. We noticed some technical and interface oddities.
Npackd didn't seem able to detect the currently available version for quite a few apps, for instance, which presumably will make it impossible to safely update them.
Some apps didn't properly install for us, either, although the package does at least provide quite a few ways to address this. You can look at the commands used during the installation, for instance, or open the app website directly to check version numbers. The interface doesn't directly enable automating, scheduling or otherwise managing your updates, either.
Although there's a lot you can do — add support for custom apps, for instance, or manage tasks from the command line or scripts — you'll need some Windows experience to get the most out of the system. RuckZuck is a free and very easy to use software package manager for Windows. And it really is seriously easy to get to grips with. You don't have to install anything or create an account, for instance. Just download and run the portable version and you're ready to go. The interface is extremely simple.
Launch RuckZuck, and after a few seconds it tells you how many updates, if any, are available for your installed apps. Click that button and RuckZuck lists them all, highlighting the current and latest version numbers. Clicking Update All silently updates everything on the list, or you can select one or more apps and update only those.
If you think that sounds basic, you'd be right, but RuckZuck has more to offer. A command line tool enables automating updates from your own scripts, for instance. RuckZuck's software catalog looks impressive, too, with hundreds of apps supported: at the latest count. It's not quite as good as it seems — there are a lot of open source and freeware projects you may not even recognize, let alone use — but you'll find plenty of popular apps, too: 7-Zip,.
Our main reservation is that RuckZuck is a small project — and entirely free to use — so doesn't have the people or resources behind it that you'll see with the bigger names. That's not really a criticism — it's a huge achievement that RuckZuck does so well — but inevitably means it can't possibly have as much testing or as many updates as the well-funded competition. And although the developer is very responsive, generally identifying and fixing problems within a day or two, he can't possibly replace the professional support team you'd get with a commercial service.
Experienced users should check out RuckZuck anyway, as it's a likeable tool with a lot to offer. But if you're a business user, looking for maximum reliability and guaranteed speedy support if anything goes wrong, you'll probably be better off elsewhere. Additionally, we've featured the best network monitoring tools. Mike began his career as a lead software developer in the engineering world, where his creations were used by big-name companies from Rolls Royce to British Nuclear Fuels and British Aerospace.
He now covers VPNs, antivirus and all things security for TechRadar, although he still has a secret love of quirky open-source and freeware apps which find brand new ways to solve common problems.
North America. The best patch management software enables you to easily manage software updates across your IT infrastructure. Avira Software Updater. Reasons to avoid - Commercial version is a little expensive. Avast Business Patch Management. Microsoft uses the cumulative rollup concept for their security updates for Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Server patching acquires, tests and installs multiple code changes to administered computer systems to keep them updated.
The process also determines the appropriate software patches for each program and schedules the installation of the patches across different systems. Patching a server is more complex than patching a workstation.
In contrast, server patching includes not only the server, but also the applications running on it and the middleware between applications. Because the critical role servers play for an organization, downtime must be kept to an absolute minimum. Most administrators find it important to prioritize server patches.
As discussed earlier, Microsoft Windows Updates automates downloads of software updates. Businesses with only has a handful of Windows servers can use the Microsoft Windows Server Update tool to deploy Windows updates. But most organizations have a more multifaceted computer environment and end up using multiple tools for other work, such as Microsoft application software patches or Mac OS patches.
Here are a few reasons why patch management is a critical expenditure in almost any IT budget:. Security is the most critical benefit of patch management. Network security breaches are most commonly caused by missing patches in operating systems and other applications.
Net Framework. By installing security updates, you avoid damage to software, data loss and identity theft. Computer crashes due to defective software can still happen and this eventually leads to lower productivity levels. A patch, on the other hand, reduces the possibility of crashes and downtime, thereby allowing workers to do their tasks without interruptions. Patches are not always about fixing bugs. They can also include new features and functionality that can tap into the latest innovations of the software.
Microsoft is constantly working on new features and sending new functionality in the form of software patches, so downloading and installing them can help you work better and smarter. Cyberthreats have become commonplace and this is why regulatory bodies are mandating that businesses apply the latest patches to avoid these threats.
Noncompliance can lead to stiff penalties, so a good patch management strategy is necessary to comply with these standards. Employees increasingly use their personal and office devices interchangeably to do their work — requiring personal devices to be protected as well.
A good patch management software installs patches across all devices, regardless of their physical location. In the process, it addresses many of the challenges that come with using personal devices. Installing the latest updates is not the most effective process of patch management. In fact, every tool should follow a detailed set of steps to ensure that the end result is economical, efficient and effective.
Here are some keys steps to developing an up-to-date inventory of the existing devices:. Validate the successful deployment of the downloaded patches in a testing environment and check for any incompatibilities or performance issues. Apply the patch across the entire organization, if no issues were uncovered during the testing phase.
Create detailed documentation and reports about patch download, testing and installation for auditing and compliance.
Though these steps may vary, the larger point is the updates should not be installed as they become available. Instead, they should go through a process laid down by the organization. Such a process-oriented approach will also make it easy to follow some of the best practices of patch management.
For a slightly different take on patch management processes, review the blog: The best patch management strategy for If done incorrectly patch management can be a risk for the organization instead of a risk mitigator.
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