14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has announced a new change for Windows Update for Business that may not be received well by system administrators.
The company says it’s killing off the Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted) option with the release of Windows 10 version 1903, allowing businesses to manually choose an update deferral setting on their own.
Right now, in the latest stable version of Windows 10, which is the October 2018 Update (version 1809), Microsoft provides businesses with two different options called Semi-Annual Channel and Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted), the latter also being referred to as SAC-T.
Basically, the first option is the one that refers to the release date of feature updates for consumers, and businesses can choose to receive updates at the same time as consumers, But because additional testing might be necessary, SAC-T makes it possible for businesses to delay the update until Microsoft flags a specific Windows 10 feature update as ready for businesses.
Changes coming into effect in April
Beginning with Windows 10 version 1903, this second option will be gone, and Microsoft says the whole approach is simplified because businesses can delay updates using options available in Windows Update.
“Once your organization’s devices have been updated to Windows 10, version 1903, the configuration of Windows Update for Business will be simpler, enabling you to choose a single deferral value based solely on the SAC release date. That means, if you are trying to set up validation flights in your environment using Windows Update for Business, or stage updates in waves, you will do so from a common release start date, which should simplify the deployment process overall,” John Wilcox of Microsoft says.
However, the biggest drawback of this new approach is that Microsoft would no longer provide businesses with the right timing to install Windows updates on their devices.
Sure, they can delay updates using the available options, but SAC-T previously allowed them to determine the right moment when a specific update was considered to be ready for business deployment.
The changes will come into effect after Windows 10 version 1903 ships in April, and you can read the full technical details in the announcement linked above.