Who uses Shavlik HFNetChkPro for patch management?

Does anyone else here use HFNetChkPro from Shavlik? http://www.shavlik.com/

I use it at home (free version good for 10 workstations and no servers) and we have a license for it at work (used for machines which cannot be managed with the C.A. product we use).

Unlike Windows Update, it scans for missing Office patches etc. and will allow you to download them locally and push them across your LAN to other boxes. I'm pretty sure it won't scan Win9x or ME boxes, but I have none of those so I never tried it.

It's a decent tool. I certainly wouldn't use it on dial-up unless I had a dedicated phone line and a lot of patience. The licensing is pretty restrictive, if you use it to patch a machine it uses up a license count, and you can't get it back if the machine is removed. The workaround is to setup the software, activate it, then shutdown the service and make a backup of the database so you can start clean (and no, that method isn't illegal, I got that from Shavlik tech support). The downside to that is that the clean database doesn't have *any* settings, like patch groups etc. so one must completely rebuild ones preferences.

Anyone else but me using it?

 

Hi ModemJunki
Thanks for the link! Very interesting read so far.
How long have you been using it?