What's the best way to apply patches to the clients

U can run software automatically on the clients machines when they logon. Just put the command line that launches the program in the logon script and u are done.
If the clients have win NT/2000 there are to issues to consider:
-the users must have the right privileges to run the application on their machine
-if u have admin rights on client machine u can use the AT command to run anything remotely at any time
Let me know if u need more details

Thanks for your comment. But what I want is: Install the software to the client automatically, no matter whether the user logged on or not. The situation is based on computers, not users. So I cannot use logon script.

u can do that only on NT/2000 clients
with the AT command or a scheduled task which u can set remotely
second:
IF there is not user logged on, why installing anything on the computer??!? (for whom?)
Use a script and the first time the user logs, he will have the software

on the clients you need to run the PCM as a service.
Which version of SMS do you use?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;DE;q166765

If you are on a Windows 2000 domain you can assign packages to be installed on computers by using group policy. Whenever any user logs in the package will be installed automatically.

Well, I am using SMS 2.0.
Mikecr, How can I make the packages from the wodnlowded patches? (They are always exe files)

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