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Patch Deploy is a wizard tool to automatically create a script to distribute and apply Microsoft patches.

What is the 6-digit article number?

Microsoft Publishes a vast assortment of information about its operating system in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Each article in the Knowledge Base is identified with a 6-digit Q number (e.g. Q324096. All Microsoft patches have an associated knowledge base article number.

Entering the article number is optional. Leave it blank if you do not know it.

Should I send the patch from the VSA or execute it from a file share?

The patch needs to execute on the managed machine to install. The wizard generated script tells the remote machine where to get the patch file to execute. The Patch Deploy Wizard asks you in step 4 if you want to "Send the patch from the VSA server to the remote machine and execute it locally" or "Execute the patch from a file share on the same LAN as the remote machine."

Pushing the patch down to each machine from the VSA may be bandwidth intensive. If you are patching multiple machines on a LAN no internet bandwidth is used to push out the patch. Each machine on the LAN can execute the patch file directly from a common file share.

Information on creating custom scripts...