If you hate that Windows 10 and 11 require frequent restarts to install available updates, you will be glad to know that Microsoft wants to fix that. According to Windows Central, Microsoft is working on bringing the Hot Patching feature from Windows Server to consumer editions of Windows 11.
For those unfamiliar with Windows Hot Patching, it is a special tool that allows for "patching the in-memory code of running processes without the need to restart the process." In other words, you can install specific updates on the go without restarting the operating system. It is not a new concept for Windows Server, and now Microsoft is testing this feature in the Dev Channel for regular users. You can learn more about it from the official documentation.
The idea is to let users install monthly security updates without interrupting their workflows and asking for a restart. However, you will still need to reboot your system every few months to install a "baseline update" for subsequent releases and the next few months without restarts. Rebooting your system once in three months sounds much more appealing than rebooting it every month.
Windows Central claims Microsoft wants to include Windows Hot Patching for consumer editions in version 24H2, which should arrive in the second half of this year under the "Windows 11 2024 Update" moniker. Also, the feature should only be available for x86 systems at first, and ARM64 devices will get Hot Patching in 2025. However, there is no info on what SKUs will get restart-less updates.
As usual, since the report is unconfirmed, take it with a reasonable grain of salt. Meanwhile, if you want to make Windows install updates faster, check out this article. Our small experiment recently revealed that a little trick can reduce install times by up to 18%.
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