With Dell Command Update 5.7.1, can I configure a recurring schedule that enables user notifications, while also using dcu-cli.exe to start the update process on demand? Ideally, the end user would still see Dell Command Update's notification prompts if a reboot is required. Also, if an update is installed on a schedule while nobody is logged into Windows, can the scheduled task reboot the computer automatically when necessary?
3 Answers
PowerShell can coordinate the scheduled task, launch the Dell CLI, check whether a reboot is pending, and restart the machine when your maintenance rules allow it. Just be careful with unattended restarts so users don’t lose unsaved work, and test the behavior both with an interactive user logged in and with the device sitting at the sign-in screen.
You could also evaluate an endpoint patch-management tool that supports Dell driver and firmware updates, scheduling, user notifications, and reboot policies in one place. That may be easier to manage than building all of the logic around Task Scheduler and dcu-cli.exe, especially across a larger fleet.
A practical approach is to wrap dcu-cli.exe in a PowerShell script and run it through Task Scheduler. You can deploy the task and its settings through Group Policy or an endpoint-management platform. The script can handle logging, return codes, notification behavior, and reboot decisions, although you’ll need to verify which Dell Command Update switches preserve the interactive prompts.
That makes sense for triggering the update, but I’d still need to confirm whether the Dell notifications appear when the CLI runs and how to handle a reboot when no user session is active.