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Reliable Windows app patching with Iru system tray notifications

Lance Crandall Lance Crandall
Reliable Windows app patching with Iru system tray notifications

Notify Windows users when app updates are available. When your users are ready, they can allow Iru to close the app and update the application. Employees get more control over when updates land, and you spend less time chasing down unpatched devices.

Vendors regularly release application updates without notice, and keeping endpoints secure requires patches to land quickly across the entire fleet. However, deployment is often delayed because applications must be closed before updates can take effect.

It happens all the time: an employee leaves primary software running for days, causing background MDM patches to repeatedly fail.

Now, you have to forcibly close active applications, disrupt daily work, and play the villain. So, how do you automate application updates reliably without impairing daily productivity?

 

Predictability over when patches land

When there is an update to either an Auto App or a Custom app, Iru’s endpoint agent will actively look to install app updates silently every 15 minutes. If the app update fails, pending updates appear in Iru’s system tray application on employee devices. From here, employees will be prompted every 8 hours if pending app updates are still available.

Alongside the update notification, employees will see an enforcement deadline. When the deadline is reached, Iru will close the app and proceed with the update ensuring the device is patched.

As a result, IT admins gain the trust that app updates will land on devices by the scheduled enforcement deadline.

Employees decide what apps to update and when

Pending updates in the system tray application give employees control over when they want to update their applications, whether a single update or all at once. For example, if an employee has a Zoom presentation in 5 minutes, they don't have to risk updating Zoom right now. They can update just Slack or Excel, get their work done, and handle Zoom later when their schedule is clear.

When employees reach the deadline, a prompt with a 5-minute countdown will appear. Users will be able to delay up to an additional, cumulative 24 hours. At this point, Iru will close the app and proceed with the update ensuring the device is patched.

Predictable compliance without user friction

Every IT team knows the difficulty of ensuring devices are secure and compliant. Iru’s Window’s system tray application now engages employees in the app patching process, giving them control over when updates land. As a result, IT gets more predictable patch compliance within the enforcement window.

Take the headache out of application updates. Book a demo to see Iru’s system tray app in action.

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