Microsoft realizes how important Windows 10 is, brings Group Policy for optional updates

Group Policies in Windows are a powerful tool for IT and system admins to control how various features can be deployed across managed Windows enterprise PCs, which is why related bugs like the one where a Settings group policy was broken annoyed and caused inconvenience to those affected.

Speaking of which, Microsoft has announced that it will soon allow the option to automatically deploy optional updates via a Group Policy on Windows 10, just like it is on Windows 11. On a Tech Community blog post, it writes:

You will soon be able to automatically deploy optional Windows updates and/or enable users in your organization to get them on Windows 10 just like on Windows 11! This policy will be available for Windows Update for Business customers as part of the November 2023 optional update.

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With the “Enable optional updates” policy, you can control the timing and the specifics of different types of optional updates. If you enable this policy, you can select how optional updates are made available to users within your organization.

Options include:

• Automatically receive optional updates (including CFRs). Select this option for devices to get the latest optional non-security updates, including gradual feature rollouts. There is no change to feature update offering.
• Automatically receive optional updates. Select this option for devices to only get the latest optional non-security updates. They won’t automatically receive gradual feature rollouts. There is no change to feature update offering.
• Users can select what optional updates to receive. Select this option to allow users to set their own preferences with respect to optional non-security updates. There is no change to feature update offering.

As mentioned above, the policy has already been available on Windows 11 since late August 2023, and seeing how Windows 10 will also receive it soon probably indicates Microsoft's acknowledgment of how significant the latter still is in the enterprise space, even after two years of Windows 11.

This isn't the only such feature as Copilot, too, has recently been brought over to Windows 10, with the company explaining why users need it even though they may not want to have it.

Last year, Microsoft tried to incentivize upgrading to Windows 11 as a way to save millions of dollars, though studies and surveys (Link1, Link2) suggested that a large number of workplace computers did not meet the system requirements for Windows 11.