RobD Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 Hi, I'm keen to buy PDQ Deploy as a alternative to deploying software via GPO but I was wondering what people thought of the software and who has the full version? The reason I'm looking is the PC's we have here are ancient and boot time is really slow and add 10-20 GPO software deployments means some boot ups take 30 mins etc. Thanks Rob
webman Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 Tagging @bossman because I think he knows a bit about this
AliG Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 I have the full enterprise version it is priceless! Use it for - Adobe Air Adobe Flash Adobe Flash Plugin Adobe Reader Java Google Chrome QuickTime Shockwave VLC player iTunes A few new features recently including auto-deployments, heartbeat and retry queue have made it even better. I also have PDQ Inventory Enterprise installed which work well together. Trial it you won't be disappointed! 1
fairm010 Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 I currently use Ninite, I may look into this instead!
bashy Posted May 11, 2015 Posted May 11, 2015 We use deploy for all of the above as we as office the auto deployments used for final app deployment
bossman Posted May 12, 2015 Posted May 12, 2015 @RobD As @webman says we have the full enterprise version and for the price per year it is worth its weight in Gold @AliG Same here Iv'e found it invaluable for these but also for deploying software which requires more than one step to install. Excellent piece of deployment software. 1
spc-rocket Posted May 12, 2015 Posted May 12, 2015 Hi, Yes we just bought the enterprise version for Deploy and Inventory and its very simple to use and works very well. Early days yet but it offers a number of customisation when deploying packages etc. The multi step and nested packages that bossman mentions are very good indeed. Ash. 1
RobD Posted May 12, 2015 Author Posted May 12, 2015 Thanks for the replies, I've been using the free version (with these free installers Click) which is awesome but is limited as if the PC's arnt on then they miss the install. Would you say it has a large advantage over GPO's?
jcs808 Posted May 12, 2015 Posted May 12, 2015 How have you guys paid for PDQ deploy? I can only see an option for credit card and the amount is in US dollars.
AJWhite1970 Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 Been trialing this for the last 24 hours, have to say I'm very impressed especially with the added packages in the Click pack. Have just told finance to go ahead and purchase a licence, at $450 pa it's a steal
ful56_uk Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 Hi For those that use the software, question for you. Once you have rebuilt a machine or built a new machine will the pdq see this and just deploy the software out or do you have to select what you need and select the targets to deploy too?
MrFrostmaul Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 I currently use this software and would recommend. I made a master install package with other packages nested within it for new computers that have been re-imaged to a clean windows. Works very well.
ful56_uk Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 Ok thanks for the info I might take a look at the demo.
AJWhite1970 Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 It uses DNS resolution and the admin$ share to target pc's and will only install packages if they are needed so copes easily with reimaged pc's with the same name. It's very good at fresh installs, I've tried 2 things so far, one a fresh build and one that had 12 updates (flash Java Air etc) which I sent to 100 pc's and it did the lot in 25 mins. Very impressed so far
ful56_uk Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 Hi Thanks for the info, so does this mean it will keep checking ou and scanning pc's for missing software and install whats missing or is this something an admin would trigger?
AJWhite1970 Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 (edited) As far as I can tell it builds a list of PC names either by you typing them in manually, picking them from AD, importing from their inventory software etc. I don't think (but happy to be proved wrong) that it rescans AD OU's to dynamically maintain the list of pc's, that's a manual admin job. With regards to installs, it only installs what it needs, for example my 100 PC test installed everything in 25 mins. I ran it again just updating AIR (new version had just come out) and the same job finished in 5 mins with everything skipped apart from AIR. The rescanning of apps is done through scheduling which is part of the pro and enterprise versions, scheduling isn't in the free version. It's not perfect but it's certainly something I can work with. Edited May 13, 2015 by AJWhite1970 1
ful56_uk Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 cheers for the info, just was trying to get an idea of what the product can do, I've downloaded the demo so time to play!
AliG Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 If you use PDQ Inventory you can set the application scanner to refresh applications on computers every x hours/days and target PDQ Deploy at a dynamic PDQ Inventory collection, for example a collection Adobe Air not installed or a collection Adobe Air old version.
AliG Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 How have you guys paid for PDQ deploy? I can only see an option for credit card and the amount is in US dollars. Luckily we have a school credit card I think they will invoice via p.o. too
AliG Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 In terms of Auto Deployments I personally would not want a new version of anything installing on all of our computers all at the same time so I created approx. 10 custom dynamic groups i.e. group 1 and any computer that's currently on and ending in 01 and group 2 any computer on and ending in 02 etc...... I'm sure you get the hint approx. 50 pc's in each group then target auto-deployments randomly at these groups - see screen shots you will see the new version of Adobe Air is being installed on any computer without it and on group 1 after 1 days and group 2 after 3 days etc.... then if there are any problems the auto deployments can be paused
techie08 Posted July 21, 2015 Posted July 21, 2015 Hi For those that use the software, question for you. Once you have rebuilt a machine or built a new machine will the pdq see this and just deploy the software out or do you have to select what you need and select the targets to deploy too? Will PDQ deploy redeploy to a station automatically if it has been reimaged? Or does it need PDQ Inventory aswell for this to happen?
AJWhite1970 Posted July 21, 2015 Posted July 21, 2015 What I do is have a second schedule that has an exact copy of all the apps we distribute but no scheduled time. When we reimage a PC, we add the PC name to that schedule (so the reimaged pcs are the only ones listed if we do a couple or a room) and then click on schedule now and choose distribute all apps. Works fine for me, tbh not waited long enough to see if it would automatically redeploy. Andrew
round2it Posted July 22, 2015 Posted July 22, 2015 Just downladed pdq and it updated java on 18 p4 2.8 gx280s in 5 mins it seems to work really well. Yes they are old but it was a good test. It also appears to block the auto update of java too which is good I am going to buy this for a year and see how much time it saves me.
Zammo Posted July 28, 2015 Posted July 28, 2015 We have been using it for about 1 year now and absolutely love it. Quick, easy to use and we leverage it in a number of ways to install software As well as the obvious we can use it to log off users, force updates checks, reboot\turn off PCs, display messages.... The support is pretty good too 1
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