PDQ

10/15/2026

Vulnerabilities can be overwheleming.

In PDQ, we built multiple ways to view and remediate vulenrabilities.

Zach leads us through looking at vulnerabilities in the software tab within PDQ.

10/14/2026

Your devices belong to different offices, departments, and support teams. Your device organization should reflect that.

PDQ now includes Device Attributes: three built-in, customizable fields for Location, Department, and Device Type.

Use them to organize devices around how your team actually works:
→ Location: Identify devices at the office a team member supports.
→ Device Type: Distinguish laptops managed by helpdesk from servers managed by another team.
→ Department: Group devices according to department-specific software policies.

A little more context for every device. A clearer way to organize your fleet.

See the full Device Attributes tutorial (https://hubs.ly/Q04B7TCq0).

Which would you put to work first: Location, Department, or Device Type?

10/14/2026

What’s one task you’d gladly hand to AI, and one you’d keep under human control?

94% of sysadmins see at least one way AI could improve their work.

75% are concerned about unsupervised AI controlling systems.

Both findings come from PDQ’s 2026 State of System Administration report. And both make sense.

AI that helps sort through system data, spot issues, and draft reports? Useful.

AI that makes production changes and leaves you explaining the outage? A slightly different view.

Sysadmins see the potential. They also know whose phone rings when something breaks.

For teams introducing AI, that means:
→ Make its actions visible.
→ Know access, privacy, and storage.
→ Keep humans able to intervene.
→ Have a way to undo changes.

10/13/2026

Andrew sits down with longtime PowerShell legend James Brundage to recap what he calls his "summer of fun," a stretch of side projects that prove PowerShell can go way further than most of us ever thought to push it.

James kicks things off with Wave, a module for creating and manipulating real .wav files in the object pipeline. Once you see audio as a sine wave and some math, you can generate notes, play music, and even draw animated SVG waves straight from PowerShell. Then, the two dive into more advance PowerShell tips and tricks. Check it out!

Andrew sits down with longtime PowerShell legend James Brundage to recap what he calls his "summer of fun," a stretch of side projects that prove PowerShell can...

10/13/2026

What’s on your Patch Tuesday bingo card?

What people think Patch Tuesday is:
→ Click “Update.”
→ Restart.
→ Get coffee.

What it actually is:
→ Read release notes like you're a crime scene investigator.
→ Test patches on a pilot group.
→ Schedule reboots around everyone’s “one quick meeting.”
→ Find the laptop that’s been offline since the last Patch Tuesday.
→ Verify installs while your coffee becomes a cold brew.

To the sysadmins testing, patching, and chasing down exceptions today: we see you.

May your deployments be smooth and your rollback plan stay untouched.

And hey if you are using PDQ then most of the above is taken care of for you:
→ Our team does the hard work for you
→ You click Automate 😉

10/13/2026

Same day. Same dread. Same recurring nightmare.

It's Patch Tuesday again.

Last month we nearly hit 1,000 CVEs. This month? We're taking bets.

Join us this week on PDQ LIVE as Brock breaks down the latest Patch Tuesday numbers and helps separate the vulnerabilities that matter from the ones that can wait.

Plus, we're pulling back the curtain on the PDQ Package Library. With nearly 1,200 packages to maintain, how do we keep everything current and reliable? Chad the Librarian joins us to show you how it works.

And because it's Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we've got a few stories from the wonderful, occasionally terrifying world of cybersecurity.

Patch Tuesday. Package libraries. Cybersecurity nightmares. Just another perfectly normal week in IT.

Join us live Wednesday at 10 AM Mountain.

We'll get through this together. Probably.
https://hubs.ly/Q04z_sTd0

10/08/2026

What would your team tackle with 30 hours back?

One sysadmin. Three schools. A week spent installing software on 30 computers.

That was Chuck Culver’s reality at Sussex County Technical School. Each device took an hour, and he had to repeat the process computer by computer.

With PDQ, Chuck built customized deployments and pushed software to the computers at once. The next day, he checked which devices still needed it and followed up on those.

The result:
→ 30 hours of manual installation work reclaimed.
→ Software changes that once required weeks of planning handled in minutes.

“For me, being a one man shop, time is so valuable. I’m spread thin.”
— Chuck Culver, Director of IT

Automate a repetitive rollout, then focus your follow-up on the devices that still need attention.

Read Chuck’s story (https://hubs.ly/Q04zBRL60)

Sussex County Technical School uses PDQ Inventory to look up computers remotely, manage hundreds of devices, and fix teacher problems from the comfort of a desk.

10/08/2026

"Can I remotely view and control computers with PDQ?"

Short answer is yes, and you choose how.

Join the user's session and work it like a screen share. Or connect to a device with nobody sitting at it. Either way you get full control, UAC prompts included, and you can move files back and forth without a USB stick.

If you've ever worked a help desk, you also know the best part: you can grab the mouse back the second the user starts online shopping while you're fixing their laptop.

Zach give us a quick overview in this video.

10/07/2026

Have you ever wondered if Microsoft has a stake in the pain relief industry?

Because few things cause a pounding sysadmin headache quite like a new Windows release. Windows 11 26H2 is here. Is your head pounding yet?

This week on PDQ LIVE, we’re bringing the extra-strength PDQ. We’ll walk through 26H2, what’s changed, what actually matters, and what you need to know before it starts showing up in your environment. No prescription required.

Next, we'll show you some new and exciting PDQ tricks. Think backstage, live shell & explorer. Plus, we'll put the PDQ AI assistant to work saving you tons of time. It's like hiring a part-time employee without clearing it through HR first. You know you always wanted to do that.

Finally, October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, so we’re putting your cybersecurity acronym knowledge to the test. Think you know your MFA from your MITM, your EDR from your XDR, and whatever other letters security people have thrown together lately?

There will be prizes. But you’re going to have to earn them.

It’s all this week on PDQ LIVE. Thursday, 10AM MT.

Have you ever wondered if Microsoft has a stake in the pain relief ...

10/07/2026

What did you automate this week?

Sysadmin win of the week: Taking nightly browser patching off the to-do list. 🙌

At Oregon State University’s Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine, an eight-person IT team supported hundreds of users. Hands-on device management took time, and remote laptops were falling through the cracks.

With PDQ, the team built an automation to check for outdated Chrome installations and update them overnight.

The result:
→ Chrome patching runs nightly.
→ A weekly patch window handles other updates and restarts.
→ The team has more time for strategic projects.

“We no longer have to go to multiple data sources to monitor for vulnerabilities; we just go to one place.”
— Susie Strangfield, Director of IT

The takeaway: Pick one recurring task and build a reliable routine around it. That’s a win worth celebrating.

Read the team’s full story (https://hubs.ly/Q04zs-z30).

PDQ Connect helps the IT team support a unique mix of medical and classroom devices with automated deployments, hard drive tracking, RBAC, and more.