Update 6.1.0

Package Store
Update in July 2019. We have improved the Package Store in the following ways:

  • Multi-selection download from Package Store
  • Packages are now sorted alphabetically by default
  • The screen scroll button (of the Package Store) is now located at the top by default
  • A remarks field has been added to the packages
  • Automatically you’ll receive an email when new packages are added to the store, so you know what’s new

Auto Update Functions
We’ve also added a better way to update both the Manager and the Agents. This cuts out the care of Sys Admins to do this, freeing up more of their time.
Version 6.1.0. comes with auto-update options as follows:

  • The manager will be able to update itself from now on. Through Help > Update & when starting up, the manager will check whether new updates are available.
  • The Auto Update Service has been integrated with the Agents so they will automatically update without the need for installing extra packages.

Other improvements
These are some other improvements we’ve made:

  • The ‘dead’ documentation link on the setup screen is solved
  • The Agent section in the Manager is now folded out by default
  • We have made small text changes in the Help > About section
  • Sortings set in the Manager are now saved for your convenience
  • We solved a bug where the Easy Software Deployment Agent can give an error on Server Operating Systems when a delayed reboot is scheduled
  • We squashed another bug; sometimes changes were not applied to INI files
  • All executables are now signed with a certificate in the name of Provolve IT B.V. This results in fewer Windows and virus scanner notifications because the executables are now trusted.

You can download version 6.1.0. via this link (the download starts immediately). If you want to perform a clean installation, download the setup.exe.

Download the User Guide for this version.

 

Update 6.0.0
On December 21st 2018 we released Easy Software Deployment 6.0, which introduced our Package Store. Since the release we’ve received some feedback which included:

  • Package Store download location was fixed to a share called Applications.
  • The 32 bit Agent MSI included a 64 bit ESD_Agent.exe

We’ve quickly fixed this on basis of your feedback! We’d like to thank you for your feedback and enthusiasm in regards to this new release. You can download the new version here.

Instructions for updating to 6.0: make a backup of ESD.exe and just copy the new ESD.exe file over the existing one. Easy!

If you’d like to start over or set up a new environment there’s also a new setup installer available which you can download here.

 

Update 5.2.2
A minor release with great features!

We squashed a bug for retrieving group membership from an OU in AD which had a special character in the name.

When group memberships are created in OU’s containing a “/” character the group name is not retrieved by the ESD Agent resulting in failed availability for Installation Items using the group membership. This bug is resolved.

Advertised shortcut placement has been greatly improved in speed

When advertised shortcuts are created during login and the ESD Agent was busy installing and removing installation items all advertised shortcuts temporarily stopped working until the ESD Agent is finished. For this release advertised shortcuts that do not have an installation sequence added can be used immediately even if the ESD Agent is busy performing an installation or removal of installation items.

We added Split System and User Membership availability

Previously, installation items were fully installed when they were assigned to either a computer or user (via group membership). You can now split the system installation to a specific computer (via group membership) and the user installation of the same installation item to a user (via group membership). Only when both assignments (computer and user) are met the full installation will be performed.

Added split System and User Installation for App-V 5

Using the new Split System and User Membership availability option you can now add App-V 5 packages during system startup without publishing. When a user logs in to the system, and is also a member of the App-V 5 installation item, the package will be published. This will ensure that the App-V 5 application is only available for the specified system and specified users that login to these systems.

We added the option to delete all personal shortcuts from Start Menu and/or Desktop

Unmanaged shortcuts by default were left alone at login. Now you can delete all shortcuts for the start menu and/or desktop making sure only shortcuts added through ESD are available for all users.

We improved the Report window

The Report view showing all computers, installation items and detailed information about all selected installation items will scale better when resizing the report window.

The maximum license count message box is now replaced with a traytip message

When licenses are about to run out a message box previously appeared every time the ESD Manager was started. This message box is now replaced by a traytip message. Only when all available licenses are used a message box will appear at startup.

We improved Software Metering by adding tracking for multiple processes with MD5 hashes (this also prepares us for future integration with Fikira Software Metering)

Software Metering previously worked only by providing an advertised shortcut. This, however, did not work when the same process was started without using the advertised shortcut provided by the ESD Agent. Software Metering is now actively running in the background for every user that is logged in to the system. It will look for all running processes for each user, and each process is verified by using an MD5 hash. Other software metering applications can now use this information for their own software metering solution.

The Manager is now 64-bit only
The Easy Software Deployment Manager has now been compiled as a 64-bit only application. This was in part to combat against false positives from virus scanners. ESD.exe sometimes got flagged as a virus or malware. This has been solved by compiling the application as 64-bit.