Symptoms

The Patches directory is growing large, and/or retaining patch executables that are no longer necessary.

Cause

Protect does not automatically delete patches from target machines.

Solution

Within a deployment template, under the General tab is an option 'Remove temp files'. Enabling this option for deployment should delete patches after they have been deployed on a target machine.

Alternative Solution

A custom action can be added to delete all files from a directory after deployments finish. 

• In the deployment template open the Custom Action tab.
• Choose a new action.
  • Set Step 1 to "All Deployments using this template"
  • Set Step 3 to "After all Patches"
  • Set Step 4 to: del /F /Q "C:\Windows\ProPatches\Patches*.*"

Note: This will delete all files in the specified path. Be certain to enter the path correctly to avoid deleting unintended files. Customer assumes all risk when running commands to automatically delete files.

• Press OK to save the custom action.