Has anyone created a worklet to end a task or close an application? In the Automox University specifically the Third Party Patch Policy training, they talk about applications that need to be close in order to update. Has anyone been successful in creating a worklet that accomplishes this?
Userlevel 3
Hi
We do have a Worklet in our Catalog that you can use for this!
The Kill Open Process Worklet will allow you to check for and end a process that you specify.
You’ll want to ensure that you complete the $ProcessName variable in the Remediation code with the exact name of the process you wish to stop.
You could schedule this Worklet a few minutes prior to your Patch Policy run to close those pesky applications that won’t patch while running.
We also have a MacOS variant of the Worklet you can check out:Kill Open Process (MacOS)
Have a great day!
Userlevel 4
While we dont have a Windows example quite yet, there are some update Worklets for some MacOS apps that prompt user/kill process/update all in one.
https://console.automox.com/manage/worklet-catalog/382
Userlevel 1
I’m interested in a solution to this as well. I wouldn’t be very popular if I were to simply kill these applications without warning though. One of them is the OpenVPN client! So what I’d like to try to achieve is have the user warned that an application will need to be exited first, then have a command do that for them. Some of our users aren’t technically adept enough to open Task Manager/Acitivity Monitor and kill the necessary processes, and even those that are will say this is too intrusive.
How might I set this up? It needs to be a combo Worklet and patch policy. Can you call a patch policy from inside a Worklet maybe?
Userlevel 4
Conditional Policy execution is something we have heavily discussed internally
ie Patch policy kicks off and is aware of apps needing an update that also require the app not be running.
End-user receives the notification and at some point hits confirm/proceed
Kill necessary apps (which ideally is handled natively in the patch policy) by invoking a worklet if needed>>update apps
App is re-launched and the end-user is free to continue.
Userlevel 1
Hi
Userlevel 4
Yes this would be an engineering initiative regardless of how its handled (1. natively in the patch policy, or 2. auto-invoking a worklet to be a part of the workflow).
Userlevel 1
Ok, that makes sense. Is there an official feature request process where I can add my vote for this?
Userlevel 4
We track this internally but I will provide a directly link to our conversation here in support of this feature. We do hear this frequently, definitely not the first to make the request!
Userlevel 1
Great stuff, thanks Mark. Automox just keeps getting better and better.
Have a great weekend. Cheers!
Greg
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