Windows Updates will be smaller after the release of Windows 11 version 24H2
Microsoft announced a fundamental change to Windows Updates. The built-in service delivers updates to millions of Windows devices throughout the world.
Starting with the release of this year's feature update, most Windows updates will become considerably smaller. To better understand the change, it is important to look at the current situation.
Cumulative updates for Windows 11 include all the changes since the last RTM release of the operating system. This means that they contain fixes and changes that may have been installed already on a device.
Good to know: the planned change applies to Windows 11 version 24H2 and Windows Server 2025. Future client and server Windows releases will also make use of the new functionality.
Windows 11 Checkpoint Cumulative Updates
Checkpoint Cumulative Updates for Windows 11 change that. The core idea here is that Microsoft will make certain updates checkpoint updates. These move the base version so that older fixes and patches are no longer included.
Technically, Microsoft is changing update packages so that they only contain the differentials since the previous checkpoint cumulative update. The effect, says Microsoft, is saved time, bandwidth, and hard drive space.
A given Windows 11 release may have multiple checkpoint updates during its lifecycle according to Microsoft. The servicing stack of a Windows 11 release "can merge all checkpoints and only download and install content that's missing on the device" according to Microsoft.
This new technology does not require changes on devices. Microsoft says that the new system works with Windows Update, Windows Update for Business, Windows Autopatch, and Windows Server Update Services. All tools and services used will work as usual after the change lands.
Administrators and users who download updates from the Microsoft Update Catalog website may notice that multiple are provided for specific versions of Windows. Microsoft reveals that one update file will be provided for each checkpoint and another that contains the cumulative payload since the latest checkpoint update.
Closing Words
The improvement to the delivery of updates for Windows 11 and Windows Server 2025 makes updates smaller in most cases. This means faster downloads and installs of Windows updates going forward.
Microsoft introduced a change back in 2021 for Windows 11 that cut the average size of updates by about 40%. It introduced the same change for Windows 10 in 2024. The new checkpoint system makes updates even smaller, as it uses the checkpoints to compute binary differentials.
All in all, this looks like a positive change for most system administrators and home users. Only users who download updates from the Microsoft Update Catalog website may have more work at hand as they need to manage multiple update packages now.
You can check out Microsoft's announcement about the change here. Microsoft has not revealed if the change will also land on Windows 10.
What is your take on the new checkpoint cumulative updates system? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
No word on what the actual update was that caused Friday morning’s “disruption”? I was hoping to read a more technically nuanced report of this, and I thought Ghacks would certainly have it.
They say it every year, but never do it. Microsoft is currently terrible at software development. They hired inexperienced programmers who only know web-based stuff.
Does anyone still remember their long ago BS-promise for Windows-updates to not need system-reboots every time?
Windows, the best crooked system, capitalism can provide
Windows was fine when they had actual QA testing and tried to ship things that were stable, the proof is the older windows versions which you can still download and install.
Windows is just an OS, it’s the management of the OS development which has fallen off a cliff, that you can blame MS for.
Mentioning capitalism is just funny to me, it has yielded us very many great innovations, and all the best operating systems, too, btw, but it comes with the perverse incentive that something cannot be “too good”, so things are either purposely crippled or deprecated over time to push a newer product (which isn’t necessarily better).
Smaller but will they be less buggy and vetted properly? I am all for smaller updates, but what I really want is for them to be stable.
I would appreciate it if MS offered a simpler, more stable product with few bugs in the first place, rather than the current bloated kludgy mess that requires constant updates and fixes.
Tweaking the update system is not a meaningful improvment.
Most of us want simpler bare bones Windows. But that would be contradiction with Microsoft business model.
However, I have to disagree that tweaking update system does not give improvements. The less Windows’s features you have, the less updates you need. And if you have only bare-bones you do not need Windows updates at all. Just update third party Antivirus and Browser regularly (keep them on auto-update). I also disabled all Microsoft files’ (even System) access to Internet altogether. I do not get interrupted now and that is an improvement too.
Also bare-bones no Microsoft Internet access will not hurt most of user programs. So far I have one none-essential small utility app that is refusing to open (out of 30 big or medium size programs and 40 third party utilities). On business side it will be different because a lot of business apps have to have Edge WebView enabled.
I have fast internet so I do not care much about a smaller update download. I care a lot about an accurate reliable update after it completes.
I also do approximately monthly updates from my manufacture (drivers and firmware) which can be huge updates. The reliability I think I gain is worth it.
> Checkpoint
So they’ve reinvented Service Packs again after 13 years. Great!
Windows 11 should abandon the 2xHx numbering system and return to the old service pack update system like SP1, SP3 to SPx as soon as possible. It became clearer which version you have inside. If someone asks me what version of W11 I have, I should surely think deeply about the answer.
Microsoft has been touting smaller, faster, Windows updates for a decade. The update system is pathetic. Speeding it up timewise will help by a minute or two. It will still be 90 percent slower, and more prone to errors, than Linux Mint is. Since I set up dual boot on two machines, the performance difference really makes the Microsoft update system look like a snail, especially with the reboots.
Last time I checked TrustedInstaller maxed out 1 out of 8 physical cores during updating and the other cores were twiddling their idle thumbs. There is more than filesize they need to fix. Also 2 reboots during some updates, on different hardware and configurations. 1 user invoked, the other 1 consecutively forced and automatic.
MS needs to learn a lot from *NIX.
dunno, feels a bit apples and oranges. Not defending MS but it’s a bit like saying “Why are renovations taking such a long time in the empire state building? My mate who lives in a bungalow also had renovations, didn’t take him nearly as long”.
And I don’t know about the prone to errors thing, I mean, i’ve heard and seen windows updates cause problems but the update procedure itself is usually not error-prone, just make sure you are plugged into the wall if a laptop and avoid sudden shutdowns.
0patch figured out how to do hotpatching on Windows years ago. Microsoft stated they would introduce hotpatching also. MSFT never did. Their update system is outdated and pathetic.
Microsoft has had hotpatching of windows server on Azure for many years and now they are ready to bring it to windows clients.
https://www.windowslatest.com/2024/03/04/windows-11-is-getting-rebootless-updates-with-hotpatching-feature/