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REQUEST: Needs Reboot Information

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Derek Lindridge

I really appreciate the Needs Reboot flag in PDQ Inventory, but it would be immensely helpful if the flag included information for WHY it was needed. i.e. what tripped the flag? Maybe a fly-out or hover box or even a line in the computer details, though truthfully a text box or something in the main display would be best. I saw when searching there are 3 registry entries PDQ looks for to determine if a reboot is needed but the one of those that I really care about is pending updates (or installations).

Thanks!

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Comments

6 comments
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    kbaker

    I would also like this functionality. I personly like the hover over box idea.

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    mis_super

    +1 for this as well..

    still testing the software and just need to convince boss of its cost efficiency. Noticed this Collection yesterday and was wondering how many are updates or alternatively GPO replated.

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    Derek Lindridge

    For anyone who wants to isolate machines to reboot for updates only until PDQ implements this, I've created a work around:

    I create a scan called "RebootRequired" and set it to look for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\RebootRequired**\

    I added the same entry to look for in the Standard scan too.

    Then I created a Dynamic Query with filter "All" to look for "Registry - Hive - Equals - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" and "Registry - Path - Equals - SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\RebootRequired".

    Once you do a Standard scan (or the RebootRequired scan) against all machines, anything with a pending update reboot will be in this new query.

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    Aaron Eccles

    Thanks - this worked well.  Any idea if there is a similar registry flag I could search for that would tell me if the computer needed updates?

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    Colby Bouma

    In 17.1.0.0, we updated the Needs Reboot field so it will show the reason when you hover over "Yes", and if you click the link it will open a text file with a detailed list.

    Unfortunately, you can't access either of these "Reason" fields from Collections, only SQL Reports. I know there was a reason why we chose to not add it, but I can't remember what it was.

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    Aaron Eccles

    Thanks Colby.  Derek's method seems to work well enough, so I've got the "needs reboot" portion of windows update setup, but I still would like to know if the system "needs updates".  WSUS reports this in the WSUS console, so I'm curious if the value that WSUS reads is on the local machine, and if so, if we can read that in PDQ somehow.... or, of course, a different way - such as using PSWindowsUpdate.

     

    Thanks,

    Aaron

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