Having to wait to switch off your machine could soon be a thing of the past, barring less frequent cumulative updates.
For as long as the world has existed - well, not very far! - Microsoft has been forcing us to reboot our PCs to apply most Windows updates of any significance. Over time, things are getting better and better, and there's already nothing comparable between Windows XP and Windows 11. What's more, with the widespread use of SSDs, systems have become much faster to reboot, but this can still happen a little too often... and, thanks to Murphy's Law, it's bound to happen at the worst possible time, for example just as you're packing up to get off the train!
As Clubic explains, relaying information published by Microsoft, the publication of update KB5058497 - deployed a few days ago - finally launches what are known in the jargon as hotpatches, or hot fixes that do not require the machine to be restarted. On Windows Server, this has already been in place for some time, but for the first time at Microsoft it concerns client machines. As a result, it is now possible to download and install updates while continuing to use the machine, without having to reboot it. The procedure involves placing the pieces of code in free RAM slots, with the system dynamically reallocating resources without the need for a reboot.
Cumulative updates every three months will always require a PC reboot © Microsoft
That said, all is not yet perfect, and Microsoft already explains that this type of hotpatches can only work on relatively minor patches. So, every three months, Microsoft will continue to roll out major cumulative updates, which will always require a system reboot. The other limitation is even more annoying: for the time being, the deployment of hotpatches only concerns terminals running Windows 11 24H2 Enterprise in addition to Server versions. In fact, it's impossible to take advantage of them on Windows 11 Home and Pro, which are much more common in our country. We can be sure that Microsoft is working on this, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that it won't take too long.
