all packages should have option to check if the version is already installed

You already can create Dynamic Collections in PDQ Inventory for computers that have the latest version, have an outdated version or dont have it at all. You need to have the proper license to use the pre-made library collections for this in Inventory.

When new packages come out they update their custom variables for the app versions and names. You can use these variables in your own packages, however they  only get updated if you have the correct license (probably enterprise)

I did not find anything in the help about this. Please explain where/how to find/do do this.

We have an enterprise license.

I should be able to create a target list that includes all our computers and have it follow this method, does it make any difference if one is using a nested package??

Thank you, Tom

Attached are two screen shots, one shows the pre-made collections in Inventories collection library. The other one shows where in preferences you can find the system variables that get automatically update like app version numbers.

P.S. - you can copy the pre-made collections in the collection library and past it down in your own collections and it will create a copy that you can edit.

I think maybe you're assuming we have PDQ Inventory.

We don't.

My feature request still stands, make this possible for people who do not use PDQ Inventory.

Thank you, Tom

Also, this is the feature request thread for PDQ Deploy.

Without inventory it won't know if it's already installed, that's the whole point of PDQ inventory. I wouldnt count on them adding this to PDQ Deploy as its something they are already doing in Inventory and would also take value away from their Inventory app. Also performing the check on the fly during a deployment would add between 30 seconds to 20 minutes per machine during a deployment.

Correction* i wanted to write 2 minutes not 20 minutes.

One thing you could do is make sure to turn on the stop deploying after successful deployment. Once the app is installed, it will not deploy to that same computer until the new version comes out.

The time part doesn't matter to me, wrt the stop deployment, that only applies to the current deployment, not any future deployments.

Well!! The free version does the dynamic collections you mention. I don't know if it's worth spending money just for automatic scans though, I could do them manually every so often. I shall try it out and see how it goes.

In PDQ Deploy, when you setup a schedule there is an option to stop deploying to computers once they succeed. So once the program is installed it will not install to that same computer the next time the schedule runs, it will only deploy to computers that don't already have it. This is linked to the package version so you could set an autodeploy package an when a new version comes out, it will deploy to all computers that don't have that new version and stop deploying to the computers that it successfully deployed to.

Again that's tied to the deployment/schedule. What I'm looking for is to always check regardless of schedule, deployment, etc. I'll have to ask support I think.

to check the current version on a computer, there is no way without pdq inventory or some other inventory software like Spiceworks. PDQ Deploy doesnt keep or collect information about computers.

You're right...Spiceworks does keep inventory but it's clunky in various ways but I have a spice server set up, I may try making some custom groups but I don't yet know if/how that can check versions before installing. Free PDQ Inventory may work better for us and also 1 less server to manage.

Check this link. http://www.adminarsenal.com/inventory-what-is-pro-mode/

The one that says Up-To-Date Collections with Collection Library. Thats the one that lets PDQ inventory automaticly know what the most recent version for software is. Without that you will have to manually update inventory with the correct version numbers when checking if software is up to date.

Ugh. I don't know if that's worth forking over an additional $500 for. I may have to keep track manually etc., time will tell. PDQ Deploy is only being used for Flash and Reader, nothing else, since WSUS takes care of the MS updates. May set up target lists instead to better manage groups of computers and 'track' what gets updated or not. Not sure if an un-updateable collection would be of help to us but then again it might be nice to use something for inventory that does not require a whole server like Spiceworks. :)

Just took note of the Inventory Collections, but unfortunately there is a disconnect between PDQ Deploy and Inventory (I.E. Citrix Receiver), along with collection names and etc.

Hoping that the difference is in versions (PDQ Deploy 8 vs PDQ Inventory 7 Release 4)