Microsoft is changing the architecture of Windows updates

Microsoft wants to change the Windows update architecture with the release of Windows 11 24H2 and Server 2025 and is introducing “cumulative checkpoint updates” to do so. As the Tech Community article shows, Checkpoint updates are supposed to come out “regularly” — Microsoft wouldn’t be more specific, but one can clearly assume a few months. The interim monthly updates come as a kind of incremental delta package that only exchanges content that has changed since the last cumulative checkpoint.

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The idea behind this is to only bother the network, the PC, and above all, the users by installing relatively thick cumulative packages every few months. The remaining updates come as smaller packages that – hopefully – download and install more quickly. In the Techcommunity article, Microsoft also suggests that cumulative checkpoints will likely coincide with the release of future functionality updates – at least as long as they don’t come as full in-place upgrades, but rather as a regular cumulative update in addition to a so-called enablement package.

There is still a routine for administrators and users.

The new update structure shouldn’t change anything for administrators or users. But there is one exception. Microsoft notes that future updates downloaded from the Update Catalog will consist of several packages: all previously released checkpoints for your version of Windows plus another cumulative package containing all the fixes included since the latest checkpoint. The packages must be installed one by one using existing management tools.

In the past, Microsoft has experimented with the installation and downloading technique several times. Since Windows 11, Windows Update first checks which components of the cumulative update should actually be downloaded. Microsoft has managed to reduce the download size, but the whole thing creates a certain computing load in order to determine which components are needed for the update — and even longer update times.

(GSS)