We are delighted to announce 2 new upcoming feature updates that require small updates to the patch management engine (PME) and our database.

1. Extension to our support of Out of Band patches for N-sight and N-central.
   
   Last year we added support for out-of-band patches, however on occasion, Microsoft release them as manual download and install only by listing on their online update catalog with a download link. This meant that even though our engine had the ability to find and install them, it could not because these were not made available to the channels scanned by the Windows Update Agent (WUA).
   
   As of the upcoming releases we will be offering those patches. We will do so by leveraging the same functionality we use to support older updates that Microsoft no longer offers, examples being previous months’ Cumulative Updates or security-only updates for older operating systems.
   
   To do this our database collects what’s relevant from Microsoft, the patch engine gets the information from our database and checks the patches directly against the device during an extended part of the normal detection scan to see if they are applicable, then offers you them in the same way as current.
   
   The only change required for you to get these patches is to be on the upcoming release version of PME which is v2.10.1
   
   This engine will enter an RC phase later this week, targeting full release within 7-14 days.
   
   
2. Improved compatibility with devices registered for Intune patching using N-central.

Earlier in the year devices registered within Intune were struggling to initiate patches from within Intune if they have N-central patching enabled. This is due to a change by Microsoft within Intune where it would no longer work if another vendor had set specific registry key values set. These values have always been in use when our patch is enabled and both worked side by side for a long time.

To solve this we have enhanced the enabling patch options to include the choice of native OS patching alongside the existing third-party patching check box.

This functionality will allow you to choose between us controlling or not controlling the OS patching whilst providing third-party patches for devices that are set to have the OS updated by Intune.

The upcoming PME build will have some changes required for this functionality to work however, we will provide further release notes on this soon as it will require an update to the N-central UI to provide those options. This has been provisionally targetted for v2023.7.