Automatc Updates on 8.1 Pro tablets? Is it possible? Ours don't install unless manual

[Garacesh]

Okay, so we have 30+ Dell tablets (rather sturdy and responsive, would recommend, truth be told..) running Windows 8.1 Pro x86 and they've been fairly well received. Had a few issues with some of them recently and it turns out that when I'm pushing out software updates via Group Policy, the tablets aren't getting them because, surprise surprise, they're not getting shut down (so as an off-note, is there a way to get rid of log off and make it shut down instead? 'cause our kids aren't going to swipe, go to settings, power, shut down.. But I digress)

 

This chain of events has also led me to discover that in fact, these tablets will not apply updates. Not passively, not even if I shut down the tablet. The tablet flash shutting down for all of .5 seconds and then go black. When booting back up, you get a DELL splash screen and then straight into logon. No updates. Login screen is showing "Windows Update: Important updates are available. Go to PC settings to install them.".. Obviously pulling tablets from sets to periodically install updates is less-than-ideal, especially if we plan on getting more of them.

 

So, this is obviously a bit of a dilemma. Anybody had more experience with W8 tablets than I could point me in the right direction?

[LeMarchand]

No idea on the updating, but I've used PSshutdown to shut down machines. Unfortunately the scheduled task for this has stopped working though it seems to run (with a few exceptions) if I do it manually. I think you can use Group Policy to create a "shut down" or "reboot" scheduled task (gonna try this on my next visit to that school).

[afc123]

Could you not run a task deployed via GPO to turn the tablets off at a certain time could be during the night to minimize disruption?

[Garacesh]

No idea on the updating, but I've used PSshutdown to shut down machines

Could you not run a task deployed via GPO to turn the tablets off at a certain time could be during the night to minimize disruption?

I'm going to hazard a guess at unlikely to work, for the same reason it doesn't for laptops. The tablets don't shut down, no, but they don't stay awake either. During sleep remote commands are queued, in a manner of speaking, and don't take effect until the machine is re-awoken and logged into. For our laptops, this means that when the network-wide remote shutdown was executed at 9pm, any laptops that were left switched on (but the lid was closed, so they had gone to sleep) or any PC's in sleep mode, would wait until they were fired up the next day and logged in to, before prompting "Windows will shut down in less than 5 minutes" - which is then ignored by kids and the teacher drags me to their room complaining the laptops shut down spontaneously >.< BLAAAHHH

[LeMarchand]

I'm going to hazard a guess at unlikely to work, for the same reason it doesn't for laptops. The tablets don't shut down, no, but they don't stay awake either. During sleep remote commands are queued, in a manner of speaking, and don't take effect until the machine is re-awoken and logged into. For our laptops, this means that when the network-wide remote shutdown was executed at 9pm, any laptops that were left switched on (but the lid was closed, so they had gone to sleep) or any PC's in sleep mode, would wait until they were fired up the next day and logged in to, before prompting "Windows will shut down in less than 5 minutes" - which is then ignored by kids and the teacher drags me to their room complaining the laptops shut down spontaneously >.< BLAAAHHH

 

Never tried it, but Wake on Wireless LAN followed by the shutdown?

[Garacesh]

Could be worth a look into, I'll see if they have that capability! That could potentially solve the group policy issue.. The updates, on the other hand..

[LeMarchand]

The updates, on the other hand..

 

Thinking about it, my Acer W510 updates automatically (but it's not domain joined) so not a problem with W8 tablets per se. Worth running a GPResult to see if your WSUS settings are applying properly?

[Garacesh]

Not seeing anything about WOL in the bios There's an automated power-on time which might be useful (but no power off ), and there's a flag to have the tablet wake up when it's put on power (or power on if it's switched off) but that seems to be it..

 

WSUS is working, I assume, but I'll GPResult anyway. Our devices can't see Microsoft's servers through our proxy, so the updates it knows it has are being pulled through WSUS rather than direct from Microsoft. It just doesn't install them when the tablet is shut down, which is when you'd usually expect them to be installed.

 

Edit: I could just disable C-States, I guess, there's a bios option for that, but I'm not so keen on that idea.

Edited March 17, 2015 by Garacesh

[LeMarchand]

Not seeing anything about WOL in the bios

 

According to this Technet article it's in the Power Management section of the driver properties (but may not be available). May be worth checking for updated drivers if not.

 

Looking at my (old) laptop, this property is greyed out and on my tablet the power tab isn't available, but the Details>Power data information suggests it's possible - I'm assuming PDCAP_WAKE_FROM_D0_SUPPORTED (and D2) means that!

 

Won't the BIOS power setting do, though? BIOS to wake the machines; scheduled task or whatever to reboot or shut them down for updates?

[Garacesh]

Won't the BIOS power setting do, though? BIOS to wake the machines; scheduled task or whatever to reboot or shut them down for updates?

I am testing that right as we speak! In one minute the machine is set to auto-on. It is currently switched on, but asleep. Let's see what happens..

 

Edit: Didn't work

Edited March 17, 2015 by Garacesh

[Garacesh]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NativeWifiP\Parameters\EnableWoWLAN REG_DWORD already exists and is already set to 1 (0x00000001) but the Dell Wireless 802.11a a/g/n Adapter does not have an 'Enabled' value for 'Wake on Magic Packet', the only value is Disabled. (Of course this is W8 so I may need Windows ADK as the article mentions...)

 

Time to see if there's a driver update, and hit Dell's support forums if there isn't.

 

Ninja edit: Whoops, sorry for the double-post.

 

Edit 2: Nope, no driver update

Edited March 17, 2015 by Garacesh