Purpose

This document outlines how to scan for the Null Patch, then use custom actions to stop a Windows Service with a batch file, and install a 3rd party program.

Scanning for null patch

Custom Actions only run during a deployment. Deployments can only occur if a scan has found a missing patch it can deploy. In some situations it may not be desirable to apply missing patches to a computer, or there may be no missing patches to deploy. In either case you can scan for Custom Action patches/The Null patch. The Null patch is a file created by Shavlik, that will always show as missing, and when ran does absolutely nothing. It provides a way to run a deployment and only modify the target computer based on the custom action.

Related Document: NullPatch.exe/Noop.exe Information

Custom action Setup & Use

This video goes over how to setup a scan to find the custom action/null patch.

A Custom Action is associated with a Deployment Template, which means it can only be used during a deployment. Now that there is a missing patch available to deploy (re: Scanning for Null Patch), this video will cover how to setup a custom action for use.

In this video, we setup a custom action to stop a service using a batch file, and then install a 3rd party program.

Affected Product(s)

Shavlik Protect 9.x