Keep Your Computer Updated for Improved Performance and Security
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Keep Your Computer Updated for Improved Performance and Security#
If you’ve ever used a Windows device, you’ve probably encountered updates frequently — just before shutting down your computer. Your device may occasionally prompt you to install critical updates. There are also six yearly feature updates that are required! What exactly are these Windows Updates? What is the distinction between various types of Windows Updates? Let us now examine them. Before we get there, let’s distinguish between Windows Updates and Microsoft Updates.
Windows Updates are updates and service packs for Microsoft’s Windows operating systems. Microsoft, as a software behemoth, is constantly updating its other products, such as Microsoft Office, Microsoft OneDrive, and others. Microsoft Updates are any updates that apply to the entire operating system, MS Office, OneDrive, and other items such as games, etc. Windows Updates are updates that only affect the operating system. Windows Update can be considered a subset of Microsoft Updates.
Windows Update Types#
Critical Update: A worldwide release update for any specific issue that is unrelated to the security provided by the operating system; such updates are released to address critical but non-security issues.
Definition revision: A definition update is a Windows update that adds or modifies the Windows operating system’s definition database. A definition database is a database built into the operating system to assist it in identifying malicious code, phishing sites, and spam mail.
Update: An update fixes a non-critical, non-security bug. Driver updates affect the operation of one or more device drivers.
Updates for security: Security updates are updates that address security issues in an operating system. These Windows Updates are typically issued after a security organization discovers a flaw in any operating system and notifies Microsoft. Microsoft creates a patch (update) as soon as possible or within a specified time frame to address those issues. The update is then distributed globally; frequently, users are also notified via email to download these security updates.
Feature Pack Updates: Are updates that make changes to specific operating system features; such updates are released as and when they become available to a selected set of users; if that set of users provides positive feedback about the changes in operating system features, Microsoft incorporates the changes into the next major release of Windows Operating Software; currently, you get two feature updates per year if you use Windows 10.
Monthly Rollup: Among the various types of Windows updates, you also get monthly rollup as an update every second Tuesday; this update includes all previous month’s updates as well as additional malware definitions.
Service Pack: A service pack is a collection of all hotfixes, security updates, critical updates, fixes, and updates. It is a collection of Windows Updates released between two versions of the Windows operating system. The era of Service Packs has passed. Updates to the built-in utilities and tools are called tool updates.
Update rollup: A bundled collection of hotfixes, security updates, critical updates, and updates for easy deployment. They have all of the necessary components and files that have changed since the last feature update.
Express updates generate differential downloads for each component in the full update based on multiple historical bases.
Delta updates: They only include the components that changed in the most recent quality update and will only be installed if the device already has the previous month’s update installed.
Security Quality Update: This update includes all previous updates.
Security Monthly Quality Rollup: It only contains updates for the current month.
Monthly Quality Rollup Preview: These preview releases contain only non-security updates and are intended to test the planned non-security updates for the next month’s Update Tuesday release.
Service Stack Updates: These are kept separate from regular cumulative updates because they add new and more optimized files to the operating system.
Final words#
Finally, while updates can be inconvenient, they are critical to the security and upkeep of your computer. You can make the update process much smoother and less stressful by following the tips above. Keep your computer up to date to benefit from improved performance and security!
See also
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