One of the constant annoyances of Windows 11 is the reboots after installing updates, especially after Microsoft Patch Day every month. Sometimes the Windows 11 computer even has to reboot several times in a row until it has finally digested all the updates. But this will soon be a thing of the past, at least for security updates that are classified as “critical”.
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In the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26058 (for the Canary Channel and the Dev Channel) for Windows Insider testers, Microsoft is testing so-called “hot patching”, i.e. installing Windows 11 updates during operation and without restarting the system calculator. Microsoft certainly has experience with hot patching, as the Redmond-based company already practices this patching process on Windows servers and Xbox. In this article, Microsoft explains the procedure for hot patching.
Since Microsoft is explicitly testing new features with build 26058 that are planned for the fall update 24H2, hot patching is likely to find its way into Windows 11 with this fall update. At least for x86 computers. ARM-based computers would not receive hot patching until 2025.
Zac Bowden, a well-known Windows expert, suspects that Microsoft wants to use hot patching for monthly security updates, but not for adding new features. That would be understandable, because a repair patch that closes a security hole is certainly easier to integrate into a running operating system than a completely new function or tool. Bowden claims to have gotten his information from unspecified “sources.”
But hot patching doesn’t mean that you never have to restart your Windows computer again. Because Bowden emphasizes that hot patching is based on a basic update that requires a restart every few months. This would mean that a system restart for Windows 11 would only be required in January, April, July and October to install the security updates. In the other months, however, hot patching would ensure secure computers without rebooting. Unscheduled updates are of course still possible at any time.
But Bowden cannot answer one important question with the information from his sources: really get it all Windows 11 computers hot patching, or only those with Windows 11 Enterprise or Education or Windows 365?
The official support document from Microsoft for Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26058 can be found at this link. However, there is no mention of hot patching.
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