I'm Robert Marshall, director and senior consultant at SMSMarshall Ltd who's specialism is in the Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager product and all of its dependent products covering all aspects from Architecture, Implementation, Migration to Break-Fix.
I've been using computers for over 30 years, beginning as a programmer and now a senior consultant in an enterprise product. I only count my career as starting 17 years ago when I began my first serious role as a deployment engineer. I've seen 8 bit through to 64 bit, the rise and constant refinement of the GUI, the rise of the Internet from land-line based modem access to the powerful broadband connections we have today, mobile phones come into existence, and I've seen Microsoft evolve from a handful of employees to the company it is now while pretty much tinkering with every OS they have released; As well as seeing an industry that has evolved around those humble beginnings to become what we have today. You could call me an IT Dinosaur but I'm still as mentally able as I was back then, perhaps even more adept now since I've had broad exposure to so much and seen trends come and go. I'm a keen technical puzzle solver, which sets me apart as I love to solve gnarly problems around my area of specialism.
I like to share, i do so by blogging here, and helping out when I can as a moderator and answering questions when I have time on the TechNet Social forums for ConfigMgr 2012 and ConfigMgr 2007. I am a guest poster on TechNet UK Flash magazine and an MVP since 2009 (Most Valuable Professional) in the ECM (Enterprise Client Management) exclusively dedicated to ConfigMgr. the MVP status helps me to help others in more depth due to the closeness to the product group and access to other MVP's the program affords me.
The blogs pretty much about ConfigMgr, but on the odd occasion I also use it as a platform to express my random urges to post something I've stumbled across, be it technical or non-technical, and which I imagine would entertain you or what not as equally as it did me.
(2013)
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