I'm Rob Marshall, a consultant who specialises in the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager product. I like to share, i do so by blogging and helping out when I can in the MS SMS newsgroups and participating in the ConfigMgr MVP program.
I was awarded and joined the program in 2009. It'd be an understatement to say it has to be one of the best experiences an IT engineer can have, if they really enjoy specialising in a product.
My biggest weapon for troubleshooting is, my formidable knowledge, no, only joking, you, the community. I find if I cannot answer a question, then I can usually find the answer from using Bing\Google, pouring over the documentation, and if that doesn't work, tinkering in mine or someone elses virtual lab.
The blogs pretty much about ConfigMgr, but it is also a platform for me to express my random urges to display something I've stumbled across, and that I imagine would entertain you or what not as equally as it did me.
If I don't use the feature often I tend to forget the colour coding, we all know what the green means, most of us know what grey means, but what are the other colours for?
The green icon represents a normal software update.
Description:
Software updates that have been synchronized available for deployment.
Operational Concerns:
There are no operational concerns.
The grey icon represents an expired software update. Expired software updates can also be identified by viewing the Expired column for the software update when it displays in the Configuration Manager console.
Expired software updates were previously deployable to client computers, but once a software update is expired, new deployments can no longer be created for the updates. Existing deployments that contain an expired update continues to work.
Expired software updates should be replaced when possible. Expired software updates that have been deployed continue to work and will continue to be tracked for software update compliance. Expired software updates are considered "not required" for reporting purposes.
The yellow icon represents a software update that has been superseded by another update. Superseded updates can also be identified by viewing the Superseded column for the software update when it displays in the Configuration Manager console.
Superseded software updates have been replaced with newer versions of the update, but are still deployable. For example, a software update that has been included in a service pack or update rollup would be superseded.
When possible, you should deploy the superseding software update to client computers instead of the update that was superseded. When selecting a superseded software update in the Configuration Manager console, the Superseded tab displays that provides a list of the software updates that supersede the selected update.
The red icon represents an invalid software update.
Invalid software updates are deployed but for some reason, the content (update file) is not available. There are 2 main ways this could happen – first is that updates get deployed successfully but sometime later someone deletes the update binary from a package; second is one a child site, where the deployment created at a parent site has been replicated successfully, but for some reason, the deployment packages have not been replicated to a distribution point for the child site
The invalid software update needs to be redeployed. When content is missing for an update in a deployment created at a parent site, the software update needs to replicated or re-downloaded on child sites.
The blue icon represents a metadata-only software update.
Metadata-only software updates are available in the Configuration Manager console for reporting and cannot be deployed or downloaded because an update file is not associated with the software updates metadata.
Metadata-only software updates are available for reporting purposes and are not intended to be used in software update deployments.
The software updates metadata is synchronized at the highest site in the Configuration Manager hierarchy that has an active software update point, which is usually the central site. The properties for the software updates can be modified at the central site, but at child sites the properties are locked. This is indicated by a lock displayed on the software update icon.
Lovingly ripped from: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb632404.aspx