Staff Desktop XP
SMS Patching on the XP Staff Desktop Service
IT Services are now deploying Security Patches via the 'Bubble' method with Microsoft SMS 2003. This method will be used whenever computers receive patches on campus. When laptops are away from campus they will be patched using automatic updates.
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As patches are released and ready to be installed on your PC, you will be prompted by a "speech bubble" in your system tray:
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If you click on the Bubble, you will be prompted with a countdown timer and some text explaining what is going to happen:
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If you click the 'Show detail' button there is a brief description of what is happening and a list of patches that are being installed. The postpone tab is greyed out on this as these patches are mandatory.
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Once the timer has counted down, the install will automatically proceed with a progress bar indicating how many patches are to be installed, and how many have been installed. This will disappear once the installation has completed.
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If you decide to close this box or do not follow on from step 2, you will see a small system tray icon with an exclamation mark in it.
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Once the install is complete you will be prompted that IT Services has installed updates and your machine may be unstable until you reboot it.
Laptop users may also see the gold shield icon used by Off Campus Updates appear, reminding them to reboot.
Therefore we reccommend you reboot your machine at your earliest convenience for both security and performance purposes.