Microsoft reduces “offline time” for Windows 10 featured updates to an average of 30 minutes

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Published onMarch 19, 2018

published onMarch 19, 2018

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Microsoft’s Joseph Conway, a Senior Program Manager on the Windows Fundamentals team, recentlytook to a blog postto explain the company has acted on a top request from Windows 10 users. Indeed, he says Microsoft worked on the phases of Windows Update to help reduce the “offline time” when Windows 10 is unusable during featured updates.

According to Conway, there are four phases in the installation of a featured update, each of which is done in online and offline phases, with multiple reboots required. An online phase happens in the background while the device and OS are running, and means the user can continue working on a PC. An offline phase, meanwhile, means the OS is not running, and there will be an offline period where the user can’t use their PC.

Here’s how updates word under the old model, with an average offline time of 82 minutes for installation of the Creators Update.

Online Phase of Update:

Offline Phase of Update:

Now, with the upcoming Redstone 4 release, Conway says Microsoft has done additional work to reduce the offline time to just 30 minutes. He provided the following explanation, saying Microsoft worked to move portions of the mitigation process from offline phase to the online phase:

Online Phase of Updates:

Offline Phase of Updates:

With these changes, the online portion of a featured update should take longer to complete, but most users will not feel the slowdown. At any rate, these are some welcome changes, helping speed up the update process and make it less infuriating for most Windows 10 users. Do you like these changes? Or do you feel that Windows Updates still take too long? Let us know your thoughts below.

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time).

For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web.

Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they’re looking for.

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Microsoft reduces “offline time” for Windows 10 featured updates to an average of 30 minutes