- Managing Desktops Remotely
- Imaging the Desktop
- Patching and Updating
- Inventory Control
- Greynet
- Reporting
- Selecting Whats Right for You
Patching and Updating
Keeping everyone’s software singing off the same page is one of the major uses of desktop management systems. Most DTMS software can automatically install patches on all the desktops being managed, and many of the programs will track progress, so you know how many of the managed systems actually have the patches installed.
In some environments there’s also the problem of "un-updating"—that is, restoring computers to a known configuration after updates have been applied. This is especially important in places such as public libraries, computer classrooms and labs, and public access computers, where you want to keep everything standardized. A number of desktop management systems do this, including Novell, with the Desktop Management Workstation Imaging system in its Zenworks DTMS.