Decline Multiple Types of Updates with WAM

by | Last updated 2023.07.25 | Published on 2020.08.26 | Blog

What’s the easiest way to decline updates? WAM! Licensed WSUS Automated Maintenance (WAM) users get to enjoy numerous benefits after installing our groundbreaking software. Whether it be creating more free time to do other tasks outside of maintaining their WSUS, or freeing up hundreds of gigabytes worth of space on their servers, here are just a few of the tasks that WAM takes care of automatically.

  • Declining multiple types of updates
  • Removing obsolete updates
  • Compressing update revisions
  • Cleaning synchronization logs
  • Indexing the WSUS database
  • Running the Server Cleanup Wizard (SCW)

While WAM does all these tasks, and more, for you, it is important to understand the terminology that is associated with WSUS. Here are some of the standard terms Microsoft uses to describe update classifications;

Critical updates – A widely released fix for a specific problem that addresses a critical, non-security-related bug.

Definition updates – A widely released and frequent software update that contains additions to a product’s definition database. Definition databases are often used to detect objects that have specific attributes, such as malicious code, phishing websites, or junk mail.

Drivers – Software that controls the input and output of a device.

Feature packs – New product functionality that is first distributed outside the context of a product release and that is typically included in the next full product release.

Security updates – A widely released fix for a product-specific, security-related vulnerability. Security vulnerabilities are rated by their severity. The severity rating is indicated in the Microsoft security bulletin as critical, important, moderate, or low.

Upgrades – Specifies an upgrade, primarily for Windows 10 features and functionality. This category is only supported on Server 2012 and higher WSUS systems for the full Windows as a Service (WaaS) functionality. These are usually released twice a year in April and September and carry a 4 digit version based on the last 2 digits of the year, and the first 2 digits of the month of the codebase (eg. 1507, 1511, 1607, 1703, 1709, 1803, 1809, 1903, 1909, 2004)

Our WAM software is extremely easy to set up and can significantly reduce the amount of disk space being used on your server. We challenge you to beat our current removal record holder, who freed up 1636.88 GBs worth of space.

If manual maintenance is wearing you and your WSUS down, consider licensing WAM for just $90 USD a year!

At AJ Tek, our vision is to make IT simple and automated for other IT professionals. Our flagship product is WAM, WSUS Automated Maintenance. This system performs all of the tasks that a WSUS Administrator needs to do to maintain WSUS properly only leaving the approving of updates and reporting to the WSUS Administrator.

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