Software Update services for NT server 4 domain users

[bhogaj31]

Hi

Bit of back ground first

My organisation is setup as follows

1 x NT4 Domain (NT4 sp6)

Some Win98 clients
Some Win2000 clients

I am currently only dealing with the Win2000 clients who are running W2k Pro SP4.

I am falling very far behind with keeping these machines uptodate with all the critical updates for Win2k and IE6 as I have to check the website manually and decide wether or not to download any new critical updates.

We do not have an automated way of distributing these updates, so it means that deskside support people walk around to each machine and update the machines manually.

This is not good because everytime a new update comes out it means they have to go all Win2k pro machines again and repeat the process.

I have seen this thing called SUS on the Microsoft website but it says that the server side software will only run on "Windows 2000 Server" or above .

We have absolutely no intention of using a Windows 2000 server or above.

We are using NT4 server need a solution which will work with our current setup as described above.

Is there anything out there for this type of setup.

There must have been a solution for Win2k clients running in an NT4 domain when every one started moving over.

Any help much appreciated.

Later

 

[thorswolf]

Although we are on a W2K network, we do most of this stuff through logon scripts. It's pretty straightforward. Here's how we handle it.

We have started a new hive in the registry under LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE called DEPLOYMENTS. This is where we put the markers of which updates have been deployed.

On logon, the machine parses the logon script which checks that the machine has all the updates it needs. If not, it launches the appropriate update in silent mode, and adds the proper subkey so the update won't run again.

Let me know if you need more info.

Yves

 

[bcastner]

How to script/batch Hotfixes:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;296861&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

You could also use one of your Workstations to manage the process, including pushing the Hotfixes out to your Workstations:

http://www.shavlik.com/pHFNetChkPro.aspx