Agent Installer (standalone tool)

Requirements

• Source (where you run the tool) and Target(s) (where you want to install the PDQ Connect Agent) must be running a current and supported version of Microsoft Windows. 
• Network connectivity between Source and Target computers (must be on the same network or connected via VPN)
• On each target computer, the Windows Firewall must be configured to enable these settings:
  • Allow inbound file and printer sharing exception
    • This rule allows the IPC$ and ADMIN$ shares to be available, as required.
  • Allow ICMP exceptions (Allow inbound echo request)
    • This rule allows a target computer to respond to ping requests. 
  • For more detailed network configuration steps, see Firewall Ports and External Exceptions (Deploy/Inventory).
• Login credentials (username/password) for an account in the local Administrators group on the Target computers.
• A PDQ Connect account with at least one organization/tenant configured.

Download and run the tool

1. Download the Connect Agent Installer (connect-agent-installer-v1.0.1.zip) and extract the entire zip file. 
2. In the extracted folder, double-click ConnectAgentInstaller.exe to run the application. 

Step 1: PDQ Connect Log-In

1. Click the Login button. A login pop-up will appear. 
2. Log into your PDQ Connect account. Upon successful login, the Organization and Tenant selection page will appear.
   
3. In the Select Tenant(s) section, select your organization. 
   • You can only select one organization per tool run. If you are a member of multiple organizations, you can simply run the tool once for each org. 
   • You may select any number of tenants under each org. 
   • Any tenants that you select will be available to add devices. 
4. Click Next to continue.

Step 2: Choose Target Computers

There are two discovery methods available on this page:

• Browse Active Directory
  • Allows you to navigate your AD structure, select OUs, and add computers from domain-joined resources. 
• Add by name
  • Allows you to manually enter hostnames or IP addresses
  • Allows you to import a CSV or text file containing a list of computer names

The Choose Target Computers page is a catch-all for computers which are added via either method or both. 
Starting each option will launch an expanded page section, and you must complete and return that section before you will be able to proceed to the next step (Step 3: Confirm Target Computers).  

Note that the page is scrollable, and you may need to scroll down to see all available options and save buttons before you can continue. 

Option A: Browse Active Directory

1. Click Launch AD Browse. 
2. In the Browse and Deployment Credentials section, enter your domain credentials, and then click Connect. 
   • If you selected multiple tenants in Step 1, choose which tenant to add devices to using the Tenant dropdown. 
3. In the Browse Active Directory section, select one or more computer and OUs as desired. 
4. Click Add Selected Computers to continue.
5. If you do not want to select any additional computers, click Back to options (top right) to return to the page. 

Option B: Add by name

1. In the Manual Entry Credentials section, enter credentials for a local administrator on all target computers. 
   • If you selected multiple tenants in Step 1, choose which tenant to add devices to using the Tenant dropdown. 
2. In the Add by Name section:
   • Add by name or IP address: type computer names or IP addresses directly, one per line (Press Enter after each name to start a new line), and then click Add to List.
     
   • Upload a file: 
     • Import a .CSV or .TXT file containing a list of computer names (CSVs should have a comma between each name or IP; TXTs should have a line break)
       
3. When you have finished manually selecting computers to add using either method, click Add All Computers to return to the page. If you do not want to select any additional computers, click Back to options (top right) to return to the page. 

Review and proceed

1. Review the computer list.
   • To remove a computer from the list, click the red ❌ in the Action column. 
2. When you are ready to proceed, click Next.

Step 3: Confirm Target Computers

On this page, the tool will run a series of pre-flight checks to confirm it has the necessary access to the computers you've selected. 

• If a computer appears with a 🟢 (green) circle, that indicates it is ready to receive the agent installation.
• If a computer appears with a 🟡 (yellow) circle, that indicates that the tool was unable to verify the device status. 
• If a computer appears with a 🔴 (red) circle, that indicates that there is a problem - you can move your mouse cursor over the circle to see the specific issue. 

Computers may be unreachable if:

• Disconnected from the network or powered off. 
• SMB (TCP 445) port or WMI are inaccessible (see WMI Diagnostics). 
• Invalid local admin credentials are specified

You may click the Remove Offline button to remove any offline devices, or you may proceed with the offline devices selected. 

When you are ready to proceed, click Next. 

Step 4: Configuration

Deployment Options

• Run installer as SYSTEM user
  • ✅ Checked by default (and recommended)
  • If you uncheck this box, the tool will attempt to run the installation using the creds you specified.
• Delete installer file after execution 
  • ✅ Checked by default (and recommended)
  • You may uncheck this box for troubleshooting purposes, but it should not be routinely necessary.

Deployment Configuration

• Max concurrent deployments
  • This is the highest number of computers that the tool will attempt to simultaneously install the agent. 
  • The default value is 5. 
  • You may set it to 0 for no limit (deploy to all targets at once), or set a higher limit, but doing so will increase network and system workload.
• Installation Timeout (minutes)
  • This is how long the installation will wait on a single machine before timing out and failing. 
  • This timeout does not include any time spent waiting for the installation to begin due to the max concurrent deployment settings above. 
  • Default value is 5 minutes, lowest possible value is 1. 
  • For slower machines or more concurrent deployments, it may be prudent to set this to a higher value.
• Retry Delay (seconds) and Max Retry Count: 
  • These settings determine how many times (per machine) the tool will retry deployment if it initially fails or times out, and how long to wait between each attempt. Default values are 30 seconds and 5 retry attempts. 
  • As noted in Step 3, it is possible to proceed with offline computers selected, so if you expect computers to hop on and offline, you can make use of these settings to catch them when they appear, to a limit that you specify. 
  • There is no specific limit on these settings, but we recommend keeping the windows narrow and letting them fail if a device is unresponsive. You will have options to easily catalog and retry deployment to any failed devices (see Tips and Troubleshooting).

Step 5: Deployment

1. When you're ready to deploy, click the large green Play button (above "Ready to Deploy"). 

   

2. The tool will push the agent to each selected device and show real-time status per machine in the Logs view at the bottom. 
3. When deployment is complete, log into PDQ Connect, switch to the organization and tenant that you selected in Step 2, and verify that devices are appearing in your PDQ Connect dashboard.
4. Concluding options: 
   • If you need to enroll more devices into another Tenant in the same Organization, click New Deployment, and you will return to Step 2 and can proceed from there, selecting a different target tenant. 
   • If you need to enroll more devices into a different Organization, click Logout, and repeat Step 1 to log into the next org. 
   • The Agent Installer tool does not need to remain running after deployment has successfully completed - it is for first-time installation of the agent only. 
     • Once devices are enrolled, the Connect agent runs independently, and will update itself as needed. 

Tips and Troubleshooting

• You can use the Logs view and tabs to see results per device, including filtered views which will show which devices succeeded, failed, or skipped deployment. Possible scenarios:
  • Succeeded: The agent was successfully installed on the device. This can occur for new devices with no previous agent installed, or for devices which had an older version installed (which were successfully upgraded). 
  • Skipped: The current version of the agent was already installed on the device, so no action needed. If you click the Cancel button, the computer will be marked as Skipped. 
  • Failed: The agent was not successfully installed on the device. 
• You may pause, resume, or cancel a deployment in progress. 
  • If you expect a computer to be online soon, you can pause the deployment, contact the user, and resume when you know it is back online. 
• Troubleshooting: 
  • If a device fails, the tool will retry automatically based on your configured retry settings. 
  • Scroll to the bottom of the window to see additional options:
    • Retry Failed Only: Retry deployment to failed devices, using the same settings. 
    • Export Logs: Export a log file of the deployment operation, showing what occurred with each device. 
    • Export Failed Devices (#): Export a list of failed devices for easy reference. The text file can be fed back into the tool using Add by Name in Step 2, either manually or by uploading the file.
• You can also click View Logs to open the logs folder, which will contain unfiltered log files for the entire tool run. 
• If you have any questions or issues using the tool, you may submit a support ticket.
  • Please mention you're using the Agent Installer, and include: 
    • Number of target computers, along with the number that succeeded or failed
    • Whether you have successfully installed the PDQ Connect Agent (even manually on a single device) in your environment, or if this was the first attempt. 
    • Any details in common between the successes or failures (e.g. physical or network location, security configuration)
    • Log files