Public Domain/Operating System Solutions for Ensuring that Sleeping Computers Receive Updates

Prior to activating computer sleep settings, it is important to make sure that the settings do not interfere with the distribution of administrative software updates (such as Windows security patches and antivirus definitions). This may be accomplished in one of several ways:

1. Configure client computers to apply software patches and updates as soon as computers become available on the network.
2. Windows Task Scheduler can wake up sleeping computers for updates. Scripts distributed via Active Directory allow network administrators to centrally manage these "scheduled tasks."
3. With Wake-on-LAN activated, a network administrator can wake up sleeping computers at any time in order to perform on-demand software patches or updates.