Windows is notorious for having the worst update system in the world. It’s unstable, breaks all the time, and it’s slow as hell. You made it through the awful install/setup process and dodged creating a Microsoft account. If you want to use Windows effectively, you need to know what it takes to survive Windows Update. Let’s dive into the Windows Update schedule, how to download your updates, and how you can avoid any problems along the way.
Patch Tuesday
Windows Update is how you update your computer and firmware. For something simple for most Linux and Mac users, Microsoft makes their update process incredibly confusing and painful for their users. It’s already a meme that Windows Update forcefully turns off people’s computers to install updates.
Windows Update is notorious for being slow and causing lots of problems: ranging from broken partitions, fundamentally flawed protocols, and worst of all, dereferenced files that looked like data loss in addition to these great anti-features.
Microsoft has a schedule of releasing the security update, split into a 4-5 letter cycle for each week of the month (A, B, C, D, and sometimes E). This naming scheme how Microsoft organizes their updates and we can use this lettered cycle to plan around a game plan to deal with Patch Tuesday.
Microsoft describes their process in their Microsoft Learn documentation and on the Tech Community blog.
One of the core tenets of maintaining Windows is Patch Tuesday, although Microsoft would prefer you refer to this as “Update Tuesday,” but that isn’t a marketing term–it’s a derogatory term given to it by the IT community. The 2nd Tuesday of every month (Week B) is a nightmare day for IT admins, as Microsoft, Adobe, and Intel all orchestrate their updates on this day, hence Patch Tuesday. In years past, Microsoft would deliver updates erratically and through “service packs,” which often led to extreme distrust and breakage or people not downloading their updates at all.
Of course, Microsoft isn’t transparent about this at all, plus they might watch my video and change their mind because it’s too predictable right now! The communication for this is scattered across blogs, X (formerly Twitter), forums, and documentation and there’s no good way to get a real answer about this.
After First Install
Before we formulate a game plan with how Windows Update works, let’s start with a fresh Windows 11 install. You’ll want to go into Windows Update and just download as many updates as you possibly can. Often times, when you first purchase your computer, the computer haven’t turned it on and is likely running an older version of Windows. If you recently reinstalled Windows, there’s a number of updates since that version of Windows was released.
As an obligatory warning, when you do this, Microsoft will instantly make you a guinea pig to test their updates and enroll you in beta-testing updates for the rest of Windows. In fact, Week D, the 4th Tuesday of the month is when Microsoft delivers feature updates to Microsoft’s other products like Office 365 and .NET.
To configure non-Windows Microsoft product updates, in the Settings app, navigate to Windows Update → Advanced Options → Receive updates for other Microsoft Products
While that happens, go to the Microsoft Store and update all of the Store apps. All of the stock applications in Windows are installed through the Microsoft Store and the easiest way to update them is to visit the Microsoft Store and verify that all of them are fully updated. Windows’s stock apps are updated independently of Windows Update, so it’s important you come back and check for updates often. This really tedious and takes at least an hour, but it’s worth it to get the security updates you need and making sure all of your Store apps are up to date.
To update your apps from the Microsoft Store or Winget, in the Microsoft Store, navigate to Library → Get Updates
When you’re done with both your Windows Updates and Microsoft Store updates, hit restart and pray your computer turns on again.
Update Frequency
Despite its problems, Windows Update does impact the reliability and bottom line of Microsoft and the Windows team has made some minor, but respectable improvements to the process by making the updates smaller in size and preventing common forms of installation corruption.
Microsoft self-reports issues and describes Windows feature updates on the Windows Release Health page.
This is the tough decision: Windows is the only way for you to download security updates, sometimes for actively exploited attacks in the wild, but is constantly plagued with buggy, broken updates, beta-tested breakages, and Microsoft anti-features. What’s the most optimal way to update Windows while keeping up effectively with Patch Tuesday and keeping our devices updated?
The Vicious Cycle
Automatic updates are crucial to keeping your device updated. Utilize the fact that the Windows team rolls out updates in stages and you’re not going to be immediately hit with an update at once. We also can’t sit idly by and let Microsoft wreak havoc on our devices. Therefore, let’s take appropriate measures to handle Windows Updates and the schedule I use when I deal with Patch Tuesday, starting from Patch Tuesday itself.
Week A
Hunker down and block Windows Update. It’s always prudent to block Windows Update and if an update is really bad, Microsoft will block it from getting to your computer. Delaying updating is a more reasonable approach to disabling Windows Updates altogether. Be prepared to back up any data to offline or cloud-based storage. If an update goes wrong, you can always restore from a backup.
To delay Windows Update, in the Settings app, navigate to Windows Update → Pause Updates
Week B
Microsoft issues the newest Windows Update. Be on the lookout for news websites that talk about Microsoft and report immediate problems related to Patch Tuesday. I typically view Brian Krebs and Susan Bradley’s comments from Ask Woody. While both Krebs and Bradley reiterate information directly from Microsoft, they save you the work of wading through the mess that is Microsoft’s Update Catalog. They both offer different perspectives too.
- Krebs focuses on the security-related issues and often links the original work submitted to Microsoft. If you see any vulnerabilities, especially for popular programs that you use, his monthly warning is your nudge to update.
- Bradley takes the slow and steady approach and is very vocal about the instability of Windows. If she’s still squawking, that’s your cue to wait on Windows Updates. She usually separates recommendations for both home and business users. In my personal opinion, she’s a little too cautious, but generally she helps strike a healthy balance for home users.
- Microsoft will often block problematic updates from being installed and will not let you get them, even if you smash that update button. However, if their engineers (or AI) decide that the update is “safe,” they will forcefully install it unless you have delayed Windows Update. You will get a prompt in the system tray or the Start menu.
No matter where you get your update information from, it’s important to use your own judgment. Krebs, Bradley, nor I can answer if updating is right. Microsoft will help a little bit if they block an update, but more often than not will force it upon you. It’s important to develop an awareness and the discernment to accept a Windows Update or delay it longer.
Week C
If you see people complaining online about how Windows Update broke something, there’s a big button to delay Windows Update for a week and sit Week B out. If you get through Week C with no complaining, it’s probably safe to accept that Update button.
Week D (and E)
Microsoft releases non-security updates for their other software, like Microsoft Office or .NET. Pick these up while can, unless you’re a crank like me. Otherwise, use this time to catch up on updates if you’re behind on Patch Tuesday.
Week A (Again)
Patch Tuesday is next week and another month has come and gone. Even if people are still complaining, download your updates now for security reasons, else you might be forced to update during the next Patch Tuesday, then you have 2 Patch Tuesdays worth of trouble.
The Cycle Goes On
Remember, by the next Patch Tuesday, you have downloaded all security/cumulative updates, then the vicious cycle will repeat, you’ll be doing this forever. Or you could just ditch Windows altogether…
The Annual Windows Update
Every year, Microsoft issues a new version of Windows and has obligations to their commercial customers to alert them of changes. Thankfully, this has gone down from twice a year, but it’s not exactly an improvement with how long these updates take and useless features introduced. What’s more, these version numbers are largely invisible to end users, especially when disparate versions of Windows 11 all look the same.
To find your Windows release, non-Windows Microsoft product updates, in the Settings app, navigate to System → About → Windows specifications → Version
Microsoft provides information about Windows 11’s support cycle in their Learn documentation. Upgrading works seamlessly between versions as long as your version of Windows is currently supported and between major Windows releases (e.g. 10, 11, etc).
If you rarely use Windows or you haven’t updated in a while, you could get into a situation where you are using an unsupported version of Windows. In this scenario, Windows Update will not give you security updates and we need to upgrade to the most recent stable build of Windows. For example, if you are running 21H2, consulting Microsoft’s documentation shows 21H2 lost support in October 2023.
If you get stuck on an unsupported version of Windows, you can attempt to upgrade using the Windows Installation Assistant. This will get you hooked up with the latest version of Windows 11 (provided you meet the hardware requirements). Using the Windows Installation will allow you to keep all of your data and install the latest version of Windows on your device.
Alternatively, you can download a Windows ISO and burn it to a USB stick using Rufus or creating a new Windows Installation Media. Once you boot into the Windows USB, you can upgrade in-place and preserve your data.
Uninstalling an Update
Let’s say you install the latest Windows update, but it’s a little sluggish. People are complaining online that their system got slower, but you installed the bad update! You can uninstall the offending update from Windows.
To uninstall a Windows update, identify the current name of the update. Microsoft uses the Knowledge Base (KB) to document individual changes to Windows. After your brain turns to mush scrolling down their massive list, look for the KB number that might be the offending update.
Let’s return to our fictional scenario. I’ve read a news article and found out that the offending update is KB1234567.
In the Settings app, navigate to System → Windows Update → Update history → Uninstall updates
The legacy Control Panel will open and list all of the updates you can uninstall. From here, select the offending update, right-click, and Uninstall. Windows will prompt you to reboot afterwards similar to normal Windows Updates. Afterwards, delay updates so the offending update is not installed.
If you still encounter problems, well that’s Windows for you. Good luck next month!