14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is trying to make Windows Update faster, especially in the case of new OS releases, which could typically take up to several hours on older configurations.
Dona Sarkar, head of the Windows Insider program, said in a short tweet that improving Windows Update is already on the team’s agenda, though no other specifics were provided.
“This is something we are pushing the dev team for, it’ll benefit every user,” she said when asked if Microsoft can reduce the upgrade time frame.
And without a doubt, such an improvement is needed, especially now that Microsoft rolls out new OS versions at a much faster pace than before.
Windows Update refinements
Microsoft has already rolled out major improvements to Windows Update last year when it made the whole process substantially less disruptive by tweaking the online and offline phases in a more effective manner.
Following these refinements, Windows Update performs more tasks before requiring a reboot, thus trying to keep the system offline for a shorter period of time.
“By moving the old offline portions of the upgrade process to the online phase, upgrades will appear to take longer if you’re watching or timing the progress. We didn’t want to sacrifice usability for offline time so the upgrade processes are run at a lower priority to provide for best performance,” Microsoft said.
Obviously, there’s still plenty of work to do in this regard. While some users are hoping for a Windows Update process that would work similar to Linux where reboots aren’t necessary, the way Microsoft’s operating system is being patched does require system restarts, so the only thing the company can do is reduce the time in offline mode.
The next major update for Windows 10 is projected to debut in April, and without major improvements for Windows Update, long install times are very likely as well.