Microsoft announces new policy for Windows Optional updates

Microsoft has announced a new policy for rolling out Windows Optional updates. The company has also announced what versions of Windows 10 will stop receiving Windows Optional updates from next month.

The Redmond tech giant currently pushes security updates, which is famously known as “Patch Tuesday,” on the second Tuesday of every month. These security updates will continue to arrive on the second Tuesday of every month, but Windows Optional updates will arrive on the fourth week of every month, starting in April.

In the last couple of months, Microsoft did push the Optional updates either in the third or fourth week. But from next month, the software giant will not vacillate between the third and fourth weeks of every month to release the Optional updates. These updates will arrive on time, the fourth week of every month.

For those who do not know, Optional updates include fixes coming in the following monthly security update release and new features, though rarely. Now, these updates will land a couple of weeks before Microsoft pushes the security updates.

Microsoft has also announced that Windows 10 versions 20H2 and 21H2 will no longer receive these non-security preview updates. These versions, however, will continue to get monthly security updates in the future. Meanwhile, Windows 10 version 22H2 will be the only candidate to continue getting Optional updates on the fourth week of every month.

Microsoft will release security updates on the second Tuesday of April, while the Optional update will arrive on the fourth week of April.

Source: Microsoft