Which settings are required to be able to scan a machine fully and successfully update missing patches using GFI LANguard?

The information in this article applies to:

  • GFI LANguard 9.0
  • GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner 3
  • GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner 5
  • GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner 6
  • GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner 7
  • GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner 8

Article ID: KBID001940

Query keywords: patch deployment, requirements

If you plan to scan Windows machines for patch management purposes or to retrieve maximum information available you should verify the following things:

Services:

Generally, for all NT/2000/XP/2003 platforms, you need to have the following services running:

  • Messenger
  • Remote Registry Service
  • Server, Task Scheduler
  • Workstation.


Access Rights:

Ensure you have installed 'File and Printing Sharing' and that you have administrative rights to access remote computers

Windows XP has a policy which by default will interpret users outside the domain as Guest users and also Guest account is disabled. In this situation you will receive in GFI LANguard this message: 'Error (1326) Logon Failure: unknown user name or bad password.'

In windows XP Professional you can change this behavior from 'Administrative Tools' -> 'Local Security Settings' -> 'Local Policies' -> 'Security Options' -> 'Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts' and change from 'Guest Only – local users authenticate as Guest' to 'Classic – local users authenticate as themselves'.


File Sharing:

Also, in Windows XP Professional, Simple File Sharing is enabled by default, which will not allow GFI LANguard to access certain components of the system remotely. This can be disabled from Windows Explorer -> 'Tools' -> 'Folder Options' -> 'View' tab -> Disable 'Use simple file sharing'.

WARNING: For Windows XP Home Edition, you cannot perform the mentioned changes and therefore remote scanning would result in limited information retrieval and processing.
 

Notes: