14 DAY TRIAL // UPDATE, February 14: Microsoft has delayed this month's security updates due to a last-minute bug and the company says that all fixes will be shipped at a later time once this issue is solved. This means no new cumulative updates just yet. Original story below.
The February 2017 Patch Tuesday is taking place tomorrow, and just like it happens every month, Microsoft will release new cumulative updates for Windows 10 as well.
While Patch Tuesday itself is a critical moment for users and IT administrators alike, the release of new cumulative updates is also super-important for everyone already on Windows 10, mostly because they bring computers fully up to date.
These cumulative updates contain all the previously-released fixes, so once you install the most recent version, the system is brought up to date. If you’ve already installed other cumulative updates, only the improvements that your computer isn’t running already are deployed.
Failing cumulative updates
And yet, long-time Windows 10 adopters certainly know that cumulative updates are just as troublesome as they are useful. Microsoft seems to be experiencing big issues when it comes to getting Windows 10 cumulative updates right, as many of those released in the past experienced bugs or caused problems on computers where they were installed.
In many cases, these Windows 10 cumulative updates failed to install, leading to errors that more or less pushed computers into reboot loops. Lucky users managed to install these updates by manually downloading them from Microsoft’s update catalog, while others decided to hide them completely and hope that the next ones would work correctly.
Other Patch Tuesday fixes
As far as the rest of the updates prepared by Microsoft for Patch Tuesday are concerned, little is known at this point, but expect the software giant to release security fixes for Windows, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft Office. These products are patched every month, and it makes sense for them to receive other fixes this time too.
IT admins and users alike should keep in mind that some of these updates, including Windows 10 cumulative updates, require system reboots, so work needs to be saved before completing the install.
We’ll let you know when these new updates become available and, as always, we’ll keep an eye out for reports of failed install to inform you if there’s anything going wrong this month.