Microsoft releases new APIs for Windows Update

[German]Microsoft released a new Microsoft Graph APIs as a public preview the days. The new API is intended to enable developers and IT professionals to manage Windows 10 updates and accelerate Windows 10 security updates in enterprise environments.

Blog reader Karl picked it up the days in the following tweet – I had also seen it the days before from colleagues at Bleeping Computer. 

Microsoft has published the details in this Techcommunity post. The new Microsoft Graph APIs, now available in public preview, are designed to give administrators comprehensive control over the approval, scheduling and protection of content delivered by Windows Update. These APIs are supported by the Windows Update for Business deployment service and enable IT professionals and app developers to, according to Microsoft:

• Approve and schedule specific feature updates to be deployed from Windows Update – including skipping or not skipping feature updates.
• Deployments over a period of days or weeks using rich expressions (for example: Deploy 20H2 to 500 devices per day, starting May 11, 2021).
• Bypass pre-configured Windows Update for Business policies to immediately deploy a security update across the enterprise.
• Deliver more secure update results by allowing administrators to use automated pilots for each deployment.

Redmond sees Microsoft Graph as the gateway to Microsoft 365, which should make it easy to build apps that span organizations, users and devices. By connecting deployment services capabilities with Microsoft Graph, app developers can easily create rich update management tools and enhance those experiences with contextual user data (e.g., using a user's calendar data when scheduling an update). However, Microsoft Graph is only available with the following Windows or Microsoft 365 subscriptions:

Windows 10 Enterprise E3 oder E5 (enthalten in Microsoft 365 F3, E3, oder E5)
Windows 10 Education A3 oder A5 (enthalten in Microsoft 365 A3 oder A5)
Windows Virtual Desktop Zugang E3 oder E5
Microsoft 365 Business Premium