Shavlik NetChk Protect 6.1

Deploying patches is a cinch as you can select critical patches, choose you own, or pick them all and push them to selected systems immediately or at scheduled times. Templates control deployments and are used to force clients to reboot, run pre- and post-deployment tasks and send out notifications.

Supported applications naturally centre heavily round Microsoft but included third-party apps are thin on the ground, so you'll probably need to use the custom patch editor. Also, why include Skype and iTunes when most right thinking network administrators will have banned their use in the workplace?

Patch scans are much faster than spyware scans, with inspections of all our test systems requiring no more than one minute each. Reports are also very detailed and show the top ten missing patches and the most vulnerable systems, plus pie charts showing patch status. Move to the machine view and you can see details of each individual system and their patch status, and also if they can be rolled back.

If you're just interested in simple, automated patch management then Microsoft's freely available WSUS is probably enough. However, if you want more and are prepared to pay then NetChk Protect is a better candidate, as it delivers far superior patch management and deployment capabilities and combines them with a reasonable set of spyware scanning and remediation tools.

Author: Dave Mitchell