Getting Started with PDQ Connect

What is PDQ Connect?

Whether you're an existing PDQ customer whose familiar with PDQ Deploy & Inventory or completely new to the world of PDQ, you may have some questions as to what exactly PDQ Connect is, what it isn't, and where it fits in with the rest of our product suite. Those questions are answered in our article PDQ Product Comparison. 

Before You Get Started with PDQ Connect 

Instructions to sign up for a trial can be found here: Starting a Trial

You can invite as many teammates to PDQ Connect as you need. For more information, see Adding Teammates to PDQ Connect. If you are a Teammate who needs to be added to an existing organization, contact an existing admin for your tenant to add you manually - do not initiate signup yourself.

To make sure your network and systems are prepared for your PDQ Connect rollout, check out the following articles: Network Requirements, System Requirements, Anti-Virus Exceptions. 

Our security practices are addressed here: PDQ Connect Security

Support requests can be submitted here: Submit a request

Managing Devices with PDQ Connect

The PDQ Connect web console can be accessed at https://app.pdq.com.

The PDQ Connect Agent

In order for a device to be managed with PDQ Connect, you must first install the PDQ Connect Agent. The PDQ Connect Agent is unique to each organization and is pre-configured for the organization it was downloaded from so all you have to do is install it on your computers with no additional configuration necessary. 

• From the Devices page, select Download Agent Installer. 
• Run the PDQ Connect Agent Installer on the computer you wish to import into PDQ Connect, and follow the prompts in the install wizard. 

The PDQ Connect Agent Installer is an MSI installer, so it can be easily silently installed and deployed to your workstations. For more information on installing the PDQ Connect Agent, as well as a few ways to deploy it, check out Installing the PDQ Connect Agent.

If you ever need to uninstall the PDQ Connect Agent, we wrote a guide for that too. You can find it at, Uninstalling the PDQ Connect Agent.

Device Filters & Groups

Device Filters can be temporarily applied to the All Computers view or saved as Groups. Device Groups help to organize your devices and simplify targeting for deployments and automations. 

• From the Devices page or when viewing a Group, select Filters to add new filters or view the currently configured filters. 
• Configure the new filters or edit the existing filters and select Apply to apply the filters to the current view or update the Group.
• When modifying an existing group, click the dropdown next to Update Group and select Save as New Group to create a new Group with the updated filters. 

To learn more about Device Filters and Groups, along with some practical examples, check out Introduction to Filters & Groups and Managing Groups.

Managing Packages with PDQ Connect

Deploying Packages

PDQ Connect offers pre-built ready-to-deploy packages of many common applications, right out of the box. With only a few mouse clicks, you can deploy any pre-built package to your computers as soon as the device appears in the PDQ Connect Console. 

• From the Devices or Deployments page, select Deploy.
• Search for the package you wish to deploy. 
• Search for the device(s) or device group(s) to receive the deployment. 
• Click Deploy. 

For a more detailed guide to deploying packages, check out Deploying Packages.

Automating Deployments

PDQ Connect Automations allow you to schedule deployments to devices and Groups. Automations containing pre-built packages from the PDQ Connect Library can be configured to always keep your computers up-to-date. 

From the Automation page, select Create Automation.    Name the Automation.   Select the package(s) to include in the Automation.    Configure the Automation trigger.    Select the device(s) or group(s) for the Automation to deploy to.    Click Save, grab a coffee, and figure out what to do with all the time you're saving by automating your deployments with PDQ Connect.

For a more comprehensive guide to creating Automations, check out Automating Deployments. 

Custom Packages

PDQ Connect doesn't restrict you to only the pre-built packages. If an application you need to deploy is not available in the pre-built packages, you can create a custom package.

From the Packages page, select Create Package.    Configure the Package Properties.    Add and configure the first package step.    Add and configure any additional steps needed.    Click Save.    Your new Custom Package is ready to be deployed and added to Automations.

To learn more about Custom Packages in PDQ Connect, see Custom Packages.