[German]Microsoft has kept its word, and has now officially released Autopatch, which was announced in April 2022 for July 2022. The paid product, Windows Autopatch, is intended to manage all aspects of enterprise deployment of quality and feature updates, drivers, firmware, and Microsoft 365 apps for Windows 10 and Windows 11.
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I came across this release via the following tweet, which Microsoft announced on July 11, 2022 in the Techcommunity post Windows Autopatch has arrived!
I had mentioned Autopatch for Windows in the April 2022 post Autopatch for Windows 10/11 Enterprise E3/E5 offered for July 2022. Autopatch for Windows is a service from Microsoft aimed at IT departments that want to keep Windows and Office software up to date on registered endpoints automatically and at no additional cost. Windows Autopatch is able to detect the differences between the endpoints used in an organization and dynamically sort them into the four test rings shown above.
Each ring includes a group of devices that can receive updates according to a set schedule. In the test ring, updates can be installed early and tested on the devices, while patches are distributed to devices in the broad ring only after extensive testing in the enterprise. This makes it possible to define how many devices are included in a ring and when a ring distributes the updates. Autopatch provides the following features:
- Stop: Updates are not propagated from ring to ring if stability targets are not met.
- Rollback: If the devices do not meet the performance targets after an update, the updates can be automatically rolled back.
- Selectivity: The feature allows parts of an update package to be propagated and parts that do not meet targets to be selectively and automatically paused or rolled back.
Because of the above features, Autopatch has the ability to keep users productive in the event of problems with updates. Microsoft describes the planned Autopatch approach in this Techcommunity article, as well as the features available through this service
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Windows Autopatch can be used as a feature for Windows 10/11 Enterprise E3 (and E5) at no additional cost. Other requirements are for management using Intune:
- Azure Active Directory (Azure AD)
- Microsoft Intune
- Windows 10/11 (supported versions)
For co-management, Configuration Manager version 2010 or higher can also be used. More details on the requirements and features can be found in the two linked articles.
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