Patch management for Windows

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Patch management is a process where code changes, "patches", are deployed to devices to fix, update or upgrade the device's operating system or software products. The purpose of patching is to ensure that devices stay secure and work optimally.

Software vendors release dozens or even hundreds of updates and patches every week. Without an automated process, staying on top of patching is difficult if not impossible.

Miradore provides automation for patching your Windows operating systems and third-party software, thus helping organizations to keep their Windows computers running smoothly and secure.

 

Four stages of patch management

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Detect

Miradore maintains a list of patches and updates available for Microsoft Windows and third-party software products. Using that list, Miradore scans the patching status of Windows devices. The patch scan runs every day at a random time. The patch scan is a light background process which doesn't cause disruption to device users.

See the full list of supported vendors to learn what Windows versions and software you can patch with Miradore.

 

Report

Miradore provides easy-to-understand reports and a number of widgets displaying information about the availability and installation status of patches in the managed environment.

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 See Viewing available and installed patches for Windows devices for more details.

 

Pilot

Sometimes patches may cause unpredictable issues on different combinations of hardware and software. Therefore, it is highly recommended to use Miradore's pilot testing feature to distribute the patches first to a group of pilot devices before upgrading all devices. In this way, you can minimize the problems caused by patches.

Pilot testing is explained in more detail in the Deploying patches to Windows devices article.

If you find out that some patch(es) cause problems in your devices, you can block the patches using patch blacklisting. See Blacklisting patches for more.

 

Deploy

You can configure Miradore to deploy applicable patches to your Windows devices automatically. At the time of installation, devices will download the patch installation media directly from the vendor.

See Deploying patches to Windows devices for more instructions.

 

Patch management requirements

Patch detection and reporting are available in all Miradore subscription plans.

Pilot testing and patch deployment are included in Miradore Enterprise plan. Please see the instructions to upgrade the subscription if needed. 

  Free Business Enterprise
Detect Yes Yes Yes
Report Yes Yes Yes
Pilot     Yes
Deploy     Yes

 

Read more related to patch management:

Viewing available and installed patches for Windows devices

Deploying patches to Windows devices

Blacklisting patches

Patch management - Supported vendors and products

Troubleshooting patch deployments

 


Please send comments to contact@miradore.com.