14 DAY TRIAL // The first Patch Tuesday of the year takes place early this time, with updates to be shipped by Microsoft in just 5 days on January 9.
The software giant typically releases security updates for its software on the second Tuesday of each month, and in January 2018, the rollout begins next week, only a few days after IT admins and engineers return to work following the Christmas holiday.
One of the most anticipated releases as part of the Patch Tuesday rollout concerns cumulative updates for Windows 10, especially because consumers and enterprises alike are in the process of upgrading to the latest version of the operating system. The Fall Creators Update, also referred to as version 1709, was announced in October 2017, but the release takes place in stages to systems across the world.
Cumulative updates allow users to bring a Windows 10 computer completely up-to-date, as the latest version always includes all the previously released fixes.
Furthermore, cumulative updates have until now been a roller coaster ride for Windows 10, as many of them caused issues and failed to install for no clear reason.
Eagerly-anticipated fix
And this month, the Patch Tuesday rollout will bring an eagerly-anticipated fix after the cumulative update published in December wreaked havoc on systems running the Fall Creators Update.
Microsoft has already acknowledged issues with cumulative update KB4054517, saying it’s aware of two different bugs experienced when trying to install it.
“Update installation may stop at 99% and may show elevated CPU or disk utilization if a device was reset using the Reset this PC functionality after installing KB4054022,” Microsoft said about one of the errors. “Windows Update History reports that KB4054517 failed to install because of Error 0x80070643,” the firm described the second.
This month’s cumulative update should fix both issues, though it remains to be seen if all users will be able to install it correctly on their systems.