System Administrators: You Need to Know the Windows 10 1903 Patch Change

Administrators who manage Windows updates should be aware of the change made by Microsoft to how patches will be handled as of the May 2019/1903 update. The change is related to the work Microsoft is doing on the Microsoft Update Systems Infrastructure.

I first learned about this change through Bryan Dam, Configuration Manager Architect, who runs the damgoodadmin.com site. Microsoft published a blog about this change late in the day of May 23, a few days after the launch of Windows 10 1903 and server 1903.

Those who use System Center Configuration Manager or Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) to apply patches to their systems must make a single change to the settings for obtaining updates and patches for Windows 10 1903 and Server 1903 or version later, as Microsoft noted in his blog. post today.

Administrators / users must manually configure the settings for 1903 in ConfigMan and WSUS, according to Microsoft, because of the work done around the Unified Update Platform (UUP). From the Microsoft publication:

"With Windows 10, Release 1903, we are introducing new product categories to enable future support for the Unified Update Platform (UUP) for on-premise management solutions, which offers enhanced delivery technologies." For Windows updates, a configuration change is required for environments running the latest public version of Configuration Manager, as well as for environments using WSUS (without Configuration Manager) for update purposes (Note: UUP for on-site management solutions is not yet available.We will have news regarding UUP, including: a public preview, at a later date.) "

In order to deploy updates to Windows 10 1903 or Server 1903, Configuration Manager version 1902 or later is required, as well as in Microsoft's explanatory notes. Administrators will not have to select a new option each time a feature update will be released for Windows 10, Server and / or Configuration Manager. Microsoft officials announced their intention to automatically add this new category to the synchronization of existing software updates and automatic deployment policies from the next version of Configuration Manager.

The updates for Windows 10 1903 and Windows Server 1903 – and later – are being released in new product categories specific to the version, as Dam explains in a May 22 blog post. And those who use Configuration Manager or WSUS need to know that they can manually change the required settings.

The Windows 10 1903 and Server 1903 feature updates were both published in the existing Windows 10 product category. But from the first updates of these feature updates, product categories become version-specific.

As Dam noted in his own blog post this week, if administrators do not make these changes manually this time, "operating system updates for the 1903 versions can not not be synchronized / applied / deployed / no matter if the technology you use to apply update filters by product category in any way. "

His advice: "Every ConfigMgr or WSUS administrator on the planet will have to manually activate these new categories if they plan to roll out updates for them," Dam said.

I have not found a lot of information published on UUP. But here's an Ignite conference article from last year about UUP, according to which UUP is intended to allow companies to use maintenance technologies instead of "media-based" technologies for the updated features. As early as last fall, in Ignite, Microsoft said that UUP would be public preview for WSUS and ConfigMan customers before the end of the year. UUP is already the default for clients using Windows Update, it was said.