We are pleased to let you know that we are releasing several updates this week, including improvements to the Antivirus Update Check for servers and workstations, enhancements to network discovery, as well as Windows and Mac Agent upgrades.  

There are also updates to Patch Management and the Automation Cookbook. Here are all the details the help you take advantage of these latest enhancements:  

Antivirus Update Check Enhancements 

• Microsoft Security Center update: Based on feedback, we have sharpened the logic for passing or failing the Antivirus Update Check when the Microsoft Security Center option is selected. It means that the check will fail if any AV solution that reports its status to the Windows Security Center is out of date (compared to previously, when it would pass as long as one AV solution was reporting it was up to date, irrespective of other AV statuses). This update ensures tighter AV monitoring for endpoints.

• Coming soon – Option to exclude Windows Defender: We will shortly be adding the option to exclude Windows Defender when you use the Microsoft Security Center option. With this option enabled, it will fully ignore the status of Windows Defender and not take it into account in passing or failing the check. 

Network Discovery Upgrades 

• Coming Soon – Default to Microsoft Security Center for new Antivirus Update checks: We will shortly be releasing a new Windows RC Agent, v10.13.9, that will automatically select Microsoft Security Center as the default option when running the check detection scan on workstations. It means a much more robust and reliable setting for the Antivirus Update Check, and helps avoid the issue of Windows Defender unnecessarily failing the check. (Please note that Microsoft does not support the Security Center option on servers, so this update only applies to workstations.) 

• More devices detected on networks: We have made substantial improvements to the detection scan process so that it is now much more robust and up to date when monitoring networks, resulting in more devices detected.

• Improved manufacturer detection: We have updated our systems with an additional 78 MAC identifiers, which means we are able to detect many more manufacturers when fingerprinting the devices that are detected on networks, including popular brands such as Intel, Dell, Samsung, Synology, Ubiquiti and more.  

• More accurate online/offline status detection: We are making further improvements to the data quality of network devices. The latest enhancement means a significant improvement to the online/offline status detection to help you see more clearly which devices are currently connected to the networks you manage.  

Automation Cookbook Updates 

• Helpful link from Script Manager to the Automation Cookbook: We added a quick link to the Automation Cookbook on the Script Manager dialog to help with awareness of this excellent resource, which contains hundreds of ready-made scripts for monitoring and automation.

• Brand new Automation Cookbook scripts: Our Nerds team has been busy as always! Here are the latest scripts to land in the Automation Cookbook for monitoring and automation, with more landing each and every week!

Upgrade Microsoft Store Apps
https://me.n-able.com/s/article/Upgrade-Microsoft-Store-Apps 
Windows Defender Status
https://me.n-able.com/s/article/Windows-Defender-Status 
Check if device is Azure AD Joined
https://me.n-able.com/s/article/Check-if-device-is-Azure-AD-joined 

Patch Management Enhancement 

• Security Updates for Server 2012: We have added Patch Management support for security updates for Server 2012, leveraging one of our recent feature enhancements for supporting Out of Band Updates. It means you can use N-sight’s standard Patch Management settings and workflows to deploy critical security patches to Server 2012 devices. For full details, click here.  

• Support for ‘Datev sicherheits compact’: As highlighted, we added support for ‘Datev sicherheits compact’, a highly requested application in the German speaking regions. 

Take Control Improvements

• The Take Control team just released a trio of updates to improve the remote access features and performance in N-sight – check out the recent blog post for details.

Mac Agent 3.9.4 GA
We are pleased to highlight that Mac Agent v3.9.4 is now GA so you can deploy the following improvements out across all the macOS devices you manage:

• BUGFIX: Failed Login Check erroneously alerting when there were no failed logins detected 
• UPDATE: Added resiliency for displaying Automated Task status 
• UPDATE: New installation method for the integrated Backup feature

Windows 10.13.9 RC – Expected in the coming days:

• UPDATE: Default to Microsoft Security Center for new Antivirus Update checks