Most Bruceb Consulting clients are protected by Bruceb Remote Management, the affordable service that monitors your computers and keeps them up to date. I’ve been working hard to make it more reliable and more valuable. Here are some of the things that are new in 2016.
WORKSTATION PATCHING The service automatically installs updates for Windows, Office, and a long list of programs and utilities from third parties. The number of supported programs has been steadily increasing. You can see the updates each week here. There are two changes this year in the patch policy for your desktop computers and laptops.
• Updates will be installed on Thursday night. If your computer is turned on, it will likely restart overnight on Thursday. More notes below about the timing.
• If your computer is turned off overnight, you will not be interrupted by an unexpected restart during your work day. It’s no longer necessary.
SERVER PATCHING New! The service now installs Microsoft updates automatically on your Windows servers. I’m evaluating each month’s security patches and updates and approving the ones that are known to be safe. The service installs the patches and restarts the server overnight if necessary. I evaluate each client separately to decide if that’s not a good idea for any reason.
TEMPORARY FILE CLEANUP Every night the service will clean temp files left behind by Internet Explorer, Windows, and programs, reducing clutter and speeding up your computer.
IMPROVED REPORTS I’ve changed the weekly reports to remove many of the misleading red X’s that made the reports look unnecessarily alarming.
COMING SOON In the next few months, I’ll be improving the proactive monitoring that can provide advance notice of failures. The remote support program that allows me to connect to your computer for support will be upgraded to the latest version of TeamViewer for faster, more reliable connections.
There’s never a convenient time to install patches and restart your computer. Microsoft is still delivering updates for Windows 7 and 8 on Patch Tuesday, the second Tuesday of each month. The Bruceb service does not change the schedule that Microsoft uses for Windows Update. Your computer will still restart after the Patch Tuesday updates. Microsoft controls the timing of that restart; it might be overnight, or you might be reminded for the next few days when you log in that a restart is necessary.
Microsoft does not seem to have any schedule for delivering updates to Windows 10. They’ve appeared whenever they’re ready, on no particular day of the week. Windows 10 is much more cooperative about scheduling the time for a restart, so it’s unlikely to take you by surprise. Again, that’s a Microsoft process that is not affected by Bruceb Remote Management.
The Bruceb service will install updates for third party, non-Microsoft programs on Thursday night, along with any Microsoft updates that are appropriate but were not installed by the Automatic Updates system. It will restart your computer when it’s done.
If you’re not using Bruceb Remote Management, drop me a note and let’s get you started! It provides valuable protection for servers and workstations. Pricing and other details can be found here. Try it for thirty days free, with no obligation.
All my valued clients: make sure all your computers are covered, and extend it to your home computers and laptops. It’s cheap and easy to set up. Contact me to get up to date!
