WINDOWS UPDATES REVAMPED

Finally – Microsoft listens to Computeractive readers

It will soon be much quicker to install major Windows updates to your PC, after Microsoft claimed that the size of the downloads will shrink by approximately 35 per cent.

The company is working on a new system called Unified Update Platform (UUP), which only downloads the parts of Windows that have changed since the last update. Currently, you have to download each new update in full – a process that can slow down even the fastest computers.

Writing on Microsoft’s blog ( www.snipca.com/22515) Bill Karagounis, director of program management, admitted that Windows users had told him that they wanted updates to be more “seamless”.

He wrote that the UUP will be implemented in the next significant update to Windows 10 – called the Creators Update – due in March 2017. Karagounis also said that Microsoft is looking at how it can give users more control over when updates begin on their PC.

New security updates website

As well as changing how its updates are released, Microsoft is ditching its security bulletins in favour of a new website, called Security Updates Guide.

Until January 2017 security updates will be published on both the existing Bulletins site ( www.snipca.com/22521) and the new Updates Guide ( www.snipca.com/22520). After then, they will appear on the latter only.

The new site makes it easier for you to search for information about security updates, using details such as KB number and release date. You can also remove updates that aren’t relevant to you.

Microsoft announced the new site on the same day (8 November) that it fixed a

security vulnerability in older versions of Windows that Google had made public a week before.

Google’s decision to reveal details of the flaw angered Microsoft. The company’s executive vice president Terry Myerson said that it put “customers at increased risk” of being hacked.

But Google pointed out that it privately told Microsoft about the flaw on 21 October, over a week before it disclosed it publicly. Google’s policy is to give companies seven days to fix “critical” security flaws, after which it publishes details online in order to prompt a response from the affected company.