Desktop maintenance is one part of automation that is simple to set up but often overlooked. Automating desktop maintenance will help reduce the number of tickets you get by proactively ensuring settings are correctly configured, local accounts are present, the device is secure (by re-enabling User Access Control, aka UAC), and more.
In the past few months, I’ve had the chance to build a desktop maintenance automation policy with two great partners—NetEffect in Las Vegas, U.S., and Aztech IT in Milton Keynes, U.K. I thought I’d share what the maintenance policy does, what our recommendations are, and some other things you could add to it if you want.
Here is a list of what the desktop policy does, and why we added it. If you choose to download and use it, as it’s available for free in the Automation Cookbook www.solarwindsmsp.com/cookbook. You can easily add, modify, or remove anything from the default policy.
Now the question everyone will ask: How often should I run this? I’ve seen partners use it daily, some weekly, and some every few weeks. My personal recommendation would be at least weekly.
If you’re interested in more scripts like this, take a look at our Automation Cookbook – www.solarwindsmsp.com/cookbook. We created it to help our partners collaborate and share their scripts. It’s called a cookbook because, it has a collection of automation recipes that MSPs can take and use on their own. It currently contains over 380 curated and reviewed scripts and is constantly growing with the support of MSPs everywhere, as well as the Automation Team at SolarWinds.
Author Marc-Andre Tanguay is head automation nerd at SolarWinds MSP. Read more guest blogs from SolarWinds MSP here.
