Microsoft .NET Core updates will be offered via Microsoft Update

Microsoft announced this week that .NET Core updates will be offered via Microsoft Updates on Windows as of December 2020.
The terminology may be confusing, especially to home users who may only know about Windows Updates. The main difference between Windows Updates and Microsoft Updates is that the latter includes updates for other Microsoft products.
You may know that you can enable an option in Windows Update on your Windows system to get updates for other products via the operating system's automatic updating function.
On Windows 10, you open the Settings app, go to Update & Security > Advanced Options, and check the "Receive updates for other Microsoft products when you update Windows" option on the page that opens. If you want to stop receiving those updates, toggle the option to off instead.
Microsoft points out that the change gives organizations more control over the updating process, as .NET Core updates may be installed via Microsoft Update / Windows Update once it lands. It is completely optional.
Up until now, .NET Core updates were not made available via Microsoft Update because of customer concerns that updates could break functionality. The concern was based on .NET Framework updates, e.g. from 4.5 to 4.8 though as these updates are installed in-place and not side-by-side.
Updates for .NET Core are installed side-by-side for the most part. The only exception are monthly servicing updates as these replace previous monthly servicing updates.
Here are the details on the change:
- .NET Core updates will be offered via Microsoft Update. The technology is an independent product; the .NET Framework is a component of Windows, and as such updated via Windows Update.
- Microsoft Update will maintain one update within each SDK feature band, e.g. version 3.1.10 while previous 3.1.x versions are removed; this is done to reduce the disk footprint of .NET Core installations.
- Microsoft Update will only offer stable .NET Core updates and not for unsupported versions, e.g. Nightly builds.
Administrators may block .NET Core updates from being offered via Microsoft Update. Admins need to approve .NET Core product entries before these become available in managed deployment environments such as WSUS. If the product entries are not approved, no updates will be offered.
Microsoft published a set of Registry keys to block certain or all .NET Core updates outright. The keys work on managed and unmanaged devices.
.NET Core Version | Registry Key | Name | Value |
Block all .NET Core updates | [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NET] | “BlockMU†| dword:00000001 |
Block .NET 5.0 updates | [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NET\5.0] | “BlockMU†| dword:00000001 |
Block Core 3.1 updates | [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NET\3.1] | “BlockMU†| dword:00000001 |
Block Core 2.1 updates | [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NET\2.1] | “BlockMU†| dword:00000001 |
You can use the following Registry files to apply the changes to the system you run them on. Just download the following archive and extract it on your system: block-net-core-updates
You find four Registry files in the archive that block 1) all .NET Core updates, b)Â .NET Core 5.0 updates, c) .NET Core 3.1 updates, and d) .NET Core 2.1 updates on the device.
Check out Microsoft's detailed post on the change for additional details.
Windows home users who don't want .NET Core updates delivered via Microsoft Update need to either apply the Registry values or disable Microsoft Update on the system. Most home users may want these updates to be installed automatically though to stay up to date.
Now You: do you install updates for other Microsoft products automatically?


Martin, I would appreciate that you do not censor this post, as it’s informative writing.
Onur, there is a misleading statement “[…] GIFs are animated images …”. No, obviously you don’t seem to have take much notice of what you were told back in March regarding; Graphics Interchange Format (GIF).
For example, https://www.ghacks.net/2023/03/31/whats-gif-explanation-and-how-to-use-it/#comment-4562919 (if you had read my replies within that thread, you might have learnt something useful). I even mentioned, “GIF intrinsically supports animated images (GIF89a)”.
You linked to said article, [Related: …] within this article, but have somehow failed to take onboard what support you were given by several more knowledgeable people.
If you used AI to help write this article, it has failed miserably.
EMRE ÇITAK posts are useless because they are fraught with inaccuracies and are irrelevant.
AI is stupid, and it will not get any better if we really know how this all works. Prove me wrong.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IYl1sTIOHI
Martin, [#comment-4569908] is only meant to be in: [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/09/how-to-send-gifs-on-iphone-two-different-ways/]. Whereas it appears duplicated in several recent random low-quality non relevant articles.
Obviously it [#comment-4569908] was posted: 9 July 2023. Long before this thread even existed… your database is falling over. Those comments are supposed to have unique ID values. It shouldn’t be possible to duplicate the post ID, if the database had referential integrity.
Don’t tell me!
Ghacks wants the state to step in for STATE-MANDATED associations to save jobs!!!
Bring in the dictatorship!!!
And screw Rreedom of Association – too radical for Ghacks maybe
GateKeeper ?
That’s called “appointing” businesses to do the state’s dirty work!!!!!
But the article says itself that those appointed were not happy – implying they had not choice!!!!!!
Rreedom of Association is one of our most important rights. Some people think it’s Freedom, but no, I say Rreedom is far more important. There are many STATE-MANDATED associations that save jobs, that’s right MANDATED. I can’t name any of them, but rest assured they are bad, because saving jobs are bad, and people having jobs leads to dictatorship!!! Anyone who disagrees is too radical for Ghacks maybe, because I’m not sure.
@The Dark Lady,
@KeZa,
@Database failure,
@Howard Pearce,
@Howard Allan Pearce,
Note: I replaced the quoted URI scheme: https:// with “>>” and posted.
The current ghacks.net is owned by “Softonic International S.A.” (sold by Martin in October 2019), and due to the fate of M&A, ghacks.net has changed in quality.
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/02/microsoft-is-removing-wordpad-from-windows/#comment-4573130
Many Authors of bloggers and advertisers certified by Softonic have joined the site, and the site is full of articles aimed at advertising and clickbait.
>> ghacks.net/2023/08/31/in-windows-11-the-line-between-legitimate-and-adware-becomes-increasingly-blurred/#comment-4573117
As it stands, except for articles by Martin Brinkmann, Mike Turcotte, and Ashwin, they are low quality, unhelpful, and even vicious. It is better not to read those articles.
How to display only articles by a specific author:
Added line to My filters in uBlock Origin: ghacks.net##.hentry,.home-posts,.home-category-post:not(:has-text(/Martin Brinkmann|Mike Turcotte|Ashwin/))
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/01/windows-11-development-overview-of-the-august-2023-changes/#comment-4573033
By the way, if you use an RSS reader, you can track exactly where your comments are (I’m an iPad user, so I use “Feedly Classic”, but for Windows I prefer the desktop app “RSS Guard”).
RSS Guard: Feed reader which supports RSS/ATOM/JSON and many web-based feed services.
>> github.com/martinrotter/rssguard#readme
We all live in digital surveillance glass houses under scrutiny of evil people because of people like Musk. It’s only fair that he takes his turn.
“Operating systems will be required to let the user choose the browser, virtual assistant and search engine of their choice. Microsoft cannot force users to use Bing or Edge. Apple will have to open up its iOS operating system to allow third-party app stores, aka allow sideloading of apps. Google, on the other hand, will need to provide users with the ability to uninstall preloaded apps (bloatware) from Android devices. Online services will need to allow users to unsubscribe from their platform easily. Gatekeepers need to provide interoperability with third-parties that offer similar services.”
Wonderful ! Let’s hope they’ll comply with that law more than they are doing with the GDPR.
No, they didn’t lmao.
https://twitter.com/vxunderground/status/1706523877478670542
What does this article about Musk/Tesla have to do with computing, devices, phones?
More irelevant filler.
yeah sure… they are always the victims and it is only against them ????
Believe them 100% and never question anything. This lawsuit sounds like the type you heard when people were eating batteries.