Administration Guide

. All right reserved.

For more information about Specops Gpupdate and other Specops products, visit
www.specopssoft.com
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

Copyright and Trademarks

Specops Gpupdate is a trademark owned by Specops Software. All other trademarks used in
this document belong to their respective owners.

2
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

Contents
Requirements 5

Installing Specops Gpupdate 6

Update License 7

Installing Specops Gpupdate 8

Executing a command 9

Execute a command using ADUC 9

Execute a command using Powershell 11

Command pinning 12

Pin a command 12

Edit pinned commands 14

Delete pinned commands 14

Scheduling 15

Add a scheduled command 16

Edit a scheduled command 17

Delete a scheduled command 17

3
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

About Specops Gpupdate

Specops Gpupdate is a free tool that allows you to remotely administer any number of
computers. Specops Gpupdate extends the functionality of Active Directory Users and
Computers and can be used to instantly perform the following tasks for a selected computer, or
multiple computers within an organizational unit:

Refresh Group Policy settings

Use Windows Software Update Service (WSUS) on remote systems to look for updates
Start remote systems with Wake On Lan (WOL)
Shutdown remote systems
Restart remote systems
Ping remote systems*
Send messages to remote systems*
Read the registry of remote systems*
Run executable files residing on your local computer against remote systems*
Run executable files residing on remote systems against remote systems*

You can learn more about Specops Gpupdate and other Specops products at
www.specopssoft.com.

*Gpupdate Professional only

4
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

Requirements
The computer where Specops Gpupdate will be installed should meet the following
requirements:

Windows XP with SP2 or Windows Server 2003 or later

.NET Framework 2.0 or later
Note: In order to install .NET Framework 3.5, you will need to run the following administrator level
command prompt: dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /all
/Source:D:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess
Enterprise administrator rights in the root domain to add the ADUC display specifiers
during installation.
Domain or Enterprise administrator rights to add license information during installation.

5
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

Installing Specops Gpupdate

During installation, Specops Gpupdate will launch the Setup Assistant. The Setup Assistant
contains installation information for Specops Gpupdate and Specops Gpupdate Professional.
You will only need to complete the installation steps for the product you plan on installing.

1. Download the Setup Assistant.

2. Save and Run the Setup Assistant locally to a machine where you administer Group Policy.
Note: By default the file is extracted to C:\temp\SpecopsGpUpdate_Setup_[VersionNumber]
3. Double click Specopssoft.SetupAssistant.exe to launch the Setup Assistant.
4. If you want to install Specops Gpupdate Professional, click Update License

6
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

Update License*
If you are installing Specops Gpupdate Professional, you will need to import your license file in
the Setup Assistant.

1. Click Update License.

2. Browse to the location of the TXT file, and click Open.

*Gpupdate Professional only

7
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

Installing Specops Gpupdate

1. Click Start Installation in the Specops Setup Assistant dialog box.
2. Verify that you have fulfilled the prerequisites. If you do not meet the pre-requisites you
may need to do the following:
a. Install PowerShell
b. Install ADUC Menu Extensions
3. Click Install.

8
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

Executing a command
You can access Specops Gpupdate from Microsoft Active Directory Users and Computer
(ADUC) or you can execute the cmdlets directly in PowerShell.

Execute a command using ADUC

1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers.
2. Select a computer by right clicking on one or more domains, Security Groups or
Computer objects.
3. Select Gpupdate in the context menu.
4. From the Execute Command tab, select a command.
5. Configure command parameters, and click Execute.

9
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

Available commands
Command Description
Gpupdate Refreshes local and Active Directory-based Group Policy settings,
including security settings.
Read Remote Gets a registry value for a remote computer.
Registry*
Run Executable* Runs any executable from the administrators computer with the remote
computer as a parameter.
Send Message* Sends a message to a computer.
Start Computer Starts a computer by broadcasting a Wake on LAN message on the
network.
Note: The computer to be started must be configured to be able to receive
WOL packages. To start a computer with WOL the computers IP Address,
Mac address, and Subnet mask must be known. By default, these values are
retrieved from DHCP servers.
Start Explorer* Starts Windows Explorer to browse the files of the remote computers.
Start Remote Starts a Remote Desktop Session against a remote computer.
Desktop*
Ping* Sends a ping command to a remote computer with a specified timeout
value.
Restart Computer Initiates a shutdown and a restart of a computer.
Run Executable Use this cmdlet to execute any command line locally on a remote
Remotely* computer.
Shutdown Computer Initiates a shutdown of a computer.
Start Event Viewer* Displays the Event Viewer console on the local machine connected to a
specific remote computer.
Start Remote Offers Remote Assistance to a user currently logged on to a remote
Assistance* computer. This will result in a dialog appearing on the users desktop
with information that an administrator is offering remote assistance.
Windows Update Requests the Windows Software Update Services on the target
computer to look for updates.

*Specops Gpupdate Professional only

10
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

Execute a command using Powershell*

Specops Gpupdate is built on PowerShell and all commands can be executed through
PowerShell cmdlets. You will need Gpupdate Professional to run the below cmdlets.

1. Open Windows PowerShell.

2. Run the following:
Add-PSSnapin Specops.Adx
Add-PSSnapin Specops.Gpupdate
Add-PSSnapin Specops.GpupdatePro
3. Run the desired cmdlet.

Available PowerShell cmdlets

Name Module
Update-SpecopsGroupPolicy Specops.Gpupdate
Stop-SpecopsComputer Specops.Gpupdate
Start-SpecopsComputer Specops.Gpupdate
Get-SpecopsRemoteRegistry Specops.GpupdatePro
Send-SpecopsMessage Specops.GpupdatePro
Invoke-SpecopsCommand Specops.GpupdatePro
Invoke-SpecopsRemoteCommand Specops.GpupdatePro
Ping-SpecopsComputer Specops.GpupdatePro
Start-SpecopsEventViewer Specops.GpupdatePro
Start-SpecopsExplorer Specops.GpupdatePro
Start-SpecopsRemoteAssistance Specops.GpupdatePro
Start-SpecopsRemoteDesktop Specops.GpupdatePro
Get-SpecopsADComputer Specops.Adx
Update-SpecopsWsus Specops.Gpupdate
Restart-SpecopsComputer Specops.Gpupdate

*Gpupdate Professional only

11
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

Command pinning
Pinned commands are shortcuts to your most used commands. The commands are available in
the context menu in the Active Directory Users and Computers Console. A pinned command is
not only a shortcut to the command itself, but also the parameters of the command. A pinned
command can be saved for the current user or for all users who run Specops Remote Admin on
the same computer.
Note: Specops Gpupdate (free version) contains pre-pinned commands installed by default.

Pin a command
There are two ways to pin a command.

Pin a command from the Pinned Commands tab

1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers.
2. Select a computer by right clicking on one or more domains, Security Groups or
Computer objects.
3. Select Gpupdate in the context menu.
4. From the Pinned Commands tab, click New Pinned Command.
5. Enter the display name of the pinned command that will appear in the context menu in
the Active Directory Users and Computers Console.
6. From the Based on command drop down list, select a command.
7. Specify if the pinned command should be stored for the current user or for all users.
8. Configure the pinned command parameters, and click Save.

12
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

Pin a command from the Command Action menu from the

command parameter page
1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers.
2. Select a computer by right clicking on one or more domains, Security Groups or
Computer objects.
3. Select Gpupdate in the context menu.
4. From the Execute Command tab, select a command.
5. Configure command parameters.
6. From the Command Actions menu, select Pin Command.
7. Enter a display name for the pinned command, and click OK.

13
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

Edit pinned commands

1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers.
2. Select a computer by right clicking on one or more domains, Security Groups or
Computer objects.
3. Select Gpupdate in the context menu.
4. From the Pinned Commands tab, select the command you want to edit by clicking its
name.
5. Modify the settings, and click Save.

Delete pinned commands

1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers.
2. Select a computer by right clicking on one or more domains, Security Groups or
Computer objects.
3. Select Gpupdate in the context menu.
4. From the Pinned Commands tab, locate the command, and click Delete.

14
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

Scheduling*
All commands in Specops Gpupdate Professional can be scheduled to execute regularly. A
scheduled command in Specops Gpupdate Professional is a PowerShell script saved to a file.
The script will be executed from within PowerShell. You can also specify a log file for the
command. The PowerShell script will then save the output from the command execution to that
log file.

The scheduling feature of Specops Gpupdate Professional utilizes the built in Windows Task
Scheduler.

*Gpupdate Professional only

15
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

Add a scheduled command

1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers.
2. Select a computer by right clicking on one or more domains, Security Groups or
Computer objects.
3. Select Gpupdate in the context menu.
4. From the Execute Command tab, select a command.
5. Configure command parameters.
6. From the Command Actions menu, click Schedule Command.
7. In the Path to script field, click Browse to identify the path to the PowerShell script file
that will be created.
8. In the Path to log file field, click Browse to identify the path to the log file that will be
generated when the script is executed from the Task Scheduler.
9. Click OK.
10. From the Task tab in task scheduler dialog box, specify the user account that will be
used to run the command in the Run as text field.
Note: You should use an account that has access to the path where you specify the script to be
saved. If you specify a log file, the account you select for the scheduled job must have write
access to this file.
11. Click Apply.
12. From the Schedule tab, specify the schedule for the command, and click Apply.
13. Configure any additional settings, and click OK.

16
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

Edit a scheduled command

You can edit a scheduled command from the Windows Task Scheduler console.

1. Open the Windows Scheduler console.

2. Double-click the scheduled command from the task list.
3. In the task scheduler dialog box, make the necessary changes, and click OK.

Delete a scheduled command

You can delete a scheduled command from the Windows Task Scheduler console.

1. Open the Windows Scheduler console.

2. Right-click the scheduled command from the task list, and select Delete.

17
Specops Gpupdate Administration Guide

Support
Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured Specops Gpupdate. For more
information, you can visit the Specops Gpupdate FAQ page at:
www.specopssoft.com/documentation/specops-gpupdate-professional-documentation/specops-
gpupdate-faq.

If you are unable to resolve a product related issue, contact Specops Support for assistance.

Online

We recommend submitting your case directly on our website at: www.specopssoft.com/support.

Telephone

International
+46 8 465 012 50
Monday - Friday: 09:00 - 17:00 CET

North America
+1-877-SPECOPS (773-2677)
Monday - Friday: 09:00 - 17:00 EST

18