Microsoft Announces 'Cumulative' Updates Will Become Mandatory For Windows 7 and 8.1 (microsoft.com)

Microsoft's now changing the way updates are delivered for Windows 7 and 8.1. Slashdot reader JustAnotherOldGuy writes: Microsoft's Senior Product Marketing Manager Nathan Mercer just announced that, "From October 2016 onwards, Windows will release a single Monthly Rollup that addresses both security issues and reliability issues in a single update... Each month's rollup will supersede the previous month's rollup, so there will always be only one update required for your Windows PCs to get current."

What this means is that individual patches will no longer be available after October 2016, and Windows 7 and Windows 8 users will now only have two choices: stop updating completely and leave your computers vulnerable to security holes, or accept everything single thing Microsoft sends you whether you want it or not.
Microsoft says their new approach "increases Windows operating system reliability, by eliminating update fragmentation and providing more proactive patches for known issues." They added that "Several update types aren't included in a rollup, such as those for Servicing Stack and Adobe Flash," and that "the .NET Framework will also follow the Monthly Rollup model." According to Microsoft's blog post, they'll also be releasing a monthly "security-only" update, but again, "individual patches will no longer be available".

Comments

stop updating completely

[turkeydance]

easy. thanks.

Re:stop updating completely

[Man On Pink Corner]

Agreed. I've left Windows Update completely off since the first appearance of GWX. So how exactly did I get an unsolicited 447-megabyte installation of Silverlight 5.1.50428.0 on August 6? I still run Security Essentials scans every so often, and I allow to update its malware definitions each time. I'm guessing that's where the Silverlight installation came from. Must be one of those "malware definitions."

Clearly a monthly rollup is the right thing to do, considering how long it takes to bring a new Windows installation up to speed. But given their track record, I'd be crazy to allow Microsoft to make changes to my system that can't be rolled back. It would be different if I could trust them to act in my interests in addition to their own. Instead, the continuous stream of lies and incompetence we've seen from the Windows Update team over the past couple of years, including a number of "bugs" and "mistakes" whose effects suspiciously seem to accrue exclusively to Microsoft's benefit, have made it inadvisable to do so.

It's not the policy that annoys me, it's the bullshit.

Can't have customers removing spy^H^Hecurity patch

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess they really didn't like people removing telemetry KB updates.

And unwanted updates...

[cdxta]

Great, now users can't block telemetry and other unwanted updates without disabling updates altogether.

Nice as a default, not as a mandate

[davidwr]

People bought Windows 7/8/8.1 with certain expectations, including the ability to opt out of a given update.

Having a monthly roll-up is generally a good idea for most customers, at least in those months with no "bad patches" (grrr). After all, that's how Apple has been doing things for its iOS and MacOS (formerly MacOXS) updates for years. If I recall, that's how they handled updates for the original MacOS (1980s-1990s) as well, except that it wasn't on a monthly cycle.

However, to suddenly change the rules mid-stream is bad PR when it comes to business customers.

At the very least, they should have a registry-key or group-policy that you can put in to "go back to doing things the old way," at least for "Enterprise," "Pro," and "Ultimate" editions.

Oh, to make things worse, they didn't announce this until AFTER the free Windows 10 upgrade period is over. Users who kept Windows 7/8/8.1 specifically so they could manage updates individually are going to be calling "foul" over this.

Isn't it obvious why they're doing this?

[ZorinLynx]

Microsoft wants to make using older versions of Windows as annoying as possible for IT departments, to try to push us to move to Windows 10.

Corporate IT departments tend to be the biggest holdouts for moving to new versions of Windows. If a business is running fine on Windows 7, there is ZERO reason beyond security updates to move to Windows 10. Now they're giving us an artificial reason: If a rolled up update breaks something, we have to roll back the ENTIRE batch. Even any included security updates.

Microsoft wants their licensing revenue, and they want fewer versions of Windows to support. This is their play.

Re:Not the complete story / Security-only updates

[ilsaloving]

The only problem is that Microsoft has a very loose definition of what defines a "Security" update. They've already demonstrated that they will outright lie about an update to get people to install it (eg: Telemetry)