14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft will make substantial changes to the way it delivers updates to Windows 7 and 8.1 computers tomorrow when it starts the rollout of this month’s Patch Tuesday, switching to a new servicing model that’s inspired by Windows 10.
Specifically, Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 will start getting rollup updates every month, which are supposed to make it easier for users and IT admins to install them on Patch Tuesdays.
Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 computers will get a security-only quality update every month, and this will be published as “Security Update” with a unique KB number. Additionally, there’ll be a security monthly quality rollup which is more of a monthly rollup containing all security fixes needed to bring a computer fully up to date.
“This will be published to Windows Update (where all consumer PCs will install it), WSUS, and the Windows Update Catalog. The initial monthly rollup released in October will only have new security updates from October, as well as the non-security updates from September,” Microsoft says.
Non-security fixes
And last but not least, there’ll be a third update that will include non-security fixes and which will be rolled on the third Tuesday of the month - this means that you’ll get it a week after Patch Tuesday.
“An additional monthly rollup containing a preview of new non-security fixes that will be included in the next monthly rollup, as well as fixes from all previous monthly rollup. This can also be called the ‘preview rollup,’” Microsoft explained.
This third update will transition to a cumulative update with every new month, as older fixes will be added to the archive when newer ones become available. This means that installing the latest version always brings your computer fully up-to-date.
All these changes take place this month, and IT admins are strongly recommended to read all the changes happening to Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs, especially if they have systems running these OS versions in their networks. All changes are included in the box after the jump.