You can automate software patching (via WinGet and Chocolatey patch managers for Windows and Homebrew patch manager for Mac) within your patch management and IT automation profiles.

Automate software patching

• Maintaining installed software: If software is already installed on a device and exists in WinGet, Chocolatey, or Homebrew, adding it to a software bundle in an automation profile will ensure it is maintained via Atera's WinGet, Chocolatey, or Homebrew integrations.
• Latest version installation: The latest version of each software in the bundle will be installed.
• Visual C++ requirement for WinGet: Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable must be installed on devices before you can install software via WinGet.
• WinGet machine-wide installation behavior: WinGet installations executed through the Atera Agent run under the SYSTEM account. To prevent applications from being installed only to the SYSTEM profile, Atera enforces machine-wide installs by adding --scope machine to WinGet commands.
• Homebrew authentication requirements: Some Homebrew software patches require password authentication or additional permissions and therefore cannot be installed via Atera. If this is the case, a message will appear to inform you.
• Excluding software: You can exclude specific software updates via WinGet, Chocolatey, and Homebrew under Excluded Software Patches.
• Chocolatey rate limitation: Chocolatey patching is limited to 20 installs per minute, per IP address. While WinGet has no rate limits, if you'd prefer to stick with Chocolatey, just keep running smaller batches of devices to avoid hitting the limit. Learn more
  • Handling error 429 (too many requests): If you receive this error, you have triggered the rate limit. The rate limit will be in place for one hour. Triggering it again will reset the limit for another hour. Learn more 

Software version discrepancies

Software versions might be behind during installation or updates due to several reasons: the agent may be offline, prerequisites like Visual C++ Redistributable or internet access may be missing, silent installation may not be possible (e.g., some apps require user input or have running processes that block updates), or the package manager may not be able to match the installed software to a package in its repository — for example, Chocolatey generally only updates software it originally installed (with limited exceptions), while WinGet requires the installed application to map to a known WinGet package with a detectable version.

Sometimes, software status and available updates rely on third-party repositories. If the latest version isn’t reflected there, or if the software was deployed from a private repository instead, it may not be recognized as requiring an update.

To automate patch management via an automation profile:

1. Go to Admin > Monitoring and automation > Patch management and IT automation.

The Patch Management and IT Automation page appears.

2. Select an existing profile or click Add profile to create a new automation profile.

The Profile page appears.

3. Check the box next to the package manager you want to use for managing your software updates:

• Chocolatey (Windows) and Homebrew (Mac)
• WinGet (Windows)

Note: Updates will be installed only for software that was installed using the selected package managers (Chocolatey and Homebrew).

There is an exception for the applications listed below: when using Chocolatey (Windows) or Homebrew (macOS), these applications can be updated by Atera regardless of their original installation source.

WinGet (Windows) can also update applications regardless of their original installation source, as long as a matching package exists in the WinGet repository and the installed version can be detected. This generally works for the applications listed below, as well as for most commonly-distributed Windows software.

Windows:

• 7-Zip
• Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (multi-language version only)
• Adobe AIR
• Adobe Flash Player 32
• CCleaner
• Cisco Webex Meetings
• CutePDF Writer
• Dashlane
• Dropbox
• Evernote
• Foxit Reader
• Google Chrome
• GoToMeeting
• Java 8 Runtime
• LogMeIn
• Microsoft Edge
• Microsoft Edge WebView
• Microsoft Teams
• Mozilla Firefox
• Notepad++
• PuTTY
• Skype
• SQL Server Management Studio
• SQL Server Express (version 2014, 2016, 2019, 2022)
• TeamViewer
• Thunderbird
• Veeam Agent
• VLC media player
• VMware Tools
• WinRAR
• WinSCP

Mac:

• CCleaner
• Dashlane
• Dropbox
• Evernote
• Firefox
• Foxit Reader
• Google Chrome
• LogMeIn
• Microsoft Edge
• Skype
• TeamViewer
• Thunderbird
• VLC

4. Click Save to update your profile.

Software bundle update

You can add a software bundle to the automation profile to update applications that aren't listed in the software list. For more information, see Software bundles

Note: Some software applications may not fully support updating through this method. As a result, there may be instances where the software appears twice on your devices—once with the old version and again with the latest version. This duplication can occur because the older version was not uninstalled automatically, and the new version was installed separately. We recommend verifying a software's update compatibility and considering manual intervention to avoid duplication.