Microsoft Kills Windows 8.1 Update 2 and Patch Tuesday

[CommanderFrank]

It’s that time again for Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday, er….wait, what? Microsoft will no longer refer to the monthly updates at Patch Tuesday and will be from now on known as Update Tuesday. The biggest news about Tuesday is there is no Windows 8.1 update bundle and improvements to 8.1 will be doled out in monthly increments along with the standard updates.

That's right, it's "Patch Tuesday" no more. As surely as if those two words were never spoken, LeBlanc has changed the name of Microsoft's monthly dump of security fixes to "Update Tuesday," meaning we can expect new features to show up along with our critical patches from now on.

 

[Koolthulu]

"Patch" reminds people you are fixing something that is broken. Guess MS is hiring some of Apple's spin doctors.

 

[Kwisatz Haderach]

I wish they would have given out all of update 2, but if its broke, I can get it in bits.

 

[Exavior]

Sounds like they are taking the same approach then with Windows now that they are with Xbox One. Instead of 1 major release every year or something like that, every month they just give you a few features.

This can be both good and bad. Good in that we get changes / new features faster than having to wait for service packs or anything like that. Bad in that this runs the chance of breaking more stuff and now gives IT staffs that need to test compatibility more to keep up on.

For me personally, I like the change to both windows and xbox updates, but do understand where it might not be so nice for others.

 

[Exavior]

I wish they would have given out all of update 2, but if its broke, I can get it in bits.

Not sure what you think we aren't getting. Sounds to me that we are still getting everything they just aren't calling it update 2 and have been giving it to us in pieces over the last few months with this month being a larger piece.

 

[Kwisatz Haderach]

will include just three new feature bundles, rather than the dozens some were hoping for

It does not look like the entire update is being rolled out.

 

[MindBuster]

"Patch" reminds people you are fixing something that is broken. Guess MS is hiring some of Apple's spin doctors.

pff, they already had "Service packs" for years, and "Editions" before that.

 

[bman212121]

Sounds like they are taking the same approach then with Windows now that they are with Xbox One. Instead of 1 major release every year or something like that, every month they just give you a few features.

This can be both good and bad. Good in that we get changes / new features faster than having to wait for service packs or anything like that. Bad in that this runs the chance of breaking more stuff and now gives IT staffs that need to test compatibility more to keep up on.

For me personally, I like the change to both windows and xbox updates, but do understand where it might not be so nice for others.

I would guess the biggest issue they are facing right now is that changes and updates affect so many parts is next to impossible to get everyone on the same schedule. Think of all of the pieces that go into a release, now take all of those things but instead of just applying it to Windows desktop and server, throw in the phones and console as well. It's likely easier and more stable to push updates as that team can certify them than trying to get all of the updates to be production ready at once. If anyone is late it would delay the release, and anyone who gets done early might have to wait longer before they can push the next fix.

IT wise it is nice to have one big update to test against, but it seems like everything is moving away from that because all of the security flaws that need immediate attention have to be patched quickly. So it's actually not all bad if you can get the fixes you have to stay current on, but hopefully with less changes at each turn if something breaks it's quicker to fix or roll back that specific change than waiting on a fix for a large service pack that breaks 10 things at once.

 

[Cerulean]

So how long is that list of new features? Is it literally just endless? How many years before Windows OS weighs a hefty 500GB on C: ?

 

[toffty]

It appears that Microsoft is trying to be more Agile

Agile is an overloaded industry term that usually means test driven development and quick release. The goal is to get new functionality to the users quickly (daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly (like this case))

It's good to see MS finally going this route as it'll hopefully modernize the rest of the industry.

 

[Comixbooks]

The real Prince formally know at Patch Tuesday ala Metro Start button.

 

[Spire3660]

It appears that Microsoft is trying to be more Agile

Agile is an overloaded industry term that usually means test driven development and quick release. The goal is to get new functionality to the users quickly (daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly (like this case))

It's good to see MS finally going this route as it'll hopefully modernize the rest of the industry.

I do not. I HATE constant updates. Its a security nightmare. I want well defined functions that are fully documented and mostly fixed. I dont want the stuff you wrote on a napkin last night being pushed out to test for you.

 

[Kueller]

I do not. I HATE constant updates. Its a security nightmare. I want well defined functions that are fully documented and mostly fixed. I dont want the stuff you wrote on a napkin last night being pushed out to test for you.

http://arstechnica.com/information-...-development-practices-into-the-21st-century/

TL;DR version: Now the security hole you reported last month is fixed this month, rather than next year.

 

[Exavior]

It does not look like the entire update is being rolled out.

There is a difference between hoped for and promised. Read your quote again, it only contains 3 updates rather than dozens hoped for. People HOPED that the start screen would be fully gone, that the full start menu would be back, that Chrome would now be the default browser, that their computer would give them a blow job when they turned it on.... I can list dreams of people on the internet for hours. None of that means that Microsoft promised or stated any of that would actually be released. The way it sounds to me they are releasing exactly what they had originally expected for update 2 but are not giving it any special name. So now instead of being Windows 8.1 update 2 it is windows update KBXXXXXXXX, windows update KBYYYYYYYY and windows update KBZZZZZZZZZ. Some of the larger things they mentioned before about maybe doing come this update were dropped off the list around the time of update 1 back in the early spring and stated they would not be done till Windows 9. I personally have never once seen an actual list of what the update would contain, I have only seen list of things we wish are in the update and things that they should put into the update.

I would guess the biggest issue they are facing right now is that changes and updates affect so many parts is next to impossible to get everyone on the same schedule. Think of all of the pieces that go into a release, now take all of those things but instead of just applying it to Windows desktop and server, throw in the phones and console as well. It's likely easier and more stable to push updates as that team can certify them than trying to get all of the updates to be production ready at once. If anyone is late it would delay the release, and anyone who gets done early might have to wait longer before they can push the next fix.

IT wise it is nice to have one big update to test against, but it seems like everything is moving away from that because all of the security flaws that need immediate attention have to be patched quickly. So it's actually not all bad if you can get the fixes you have to stay current on, but hopefully with less changes at each turn if something breaks it's quicker to fix or roll back that specific change than waiting on a fix for a large service pack that breaks 10 things at once.

I agree about the security updates. That is why I am glad I never had to work in a place where I needed to test every patch against everything I ran to ensure that a patch didn't cause odd behaviors with some obscure program that only me and 10 other companies in the world run. Instead I always had WSUS set to auto approve all updates other than service packs. I would test those real quick to ensure they installed ok and didn't require any other programs to be upgraded and would then push them out. Things change too quickly and you need to worry too much about security holes now to spend too much time putting off updating.

 

[Sp33dFr33k]

I don't care what they call it as long as they're testing the releases. I've seen a lot of Windows 8 systems go bad after an update.

 

[69matrix69]

i just got done putting the 8.1 patch on my phone, it took forever (about an hout) im sure the next patch will take even longer and take even more room up on my phone.

 

[az_max]

Microsoft needs to do like IBM used to do (Maybe still does) and release 'roll-up' packages of all the fixes to date. Different than a service pack, it contains weeks/months/years of updates and only the latest needs to be applied.
Apply a Microsoft Service Pack and you still have hundreds of updates to apply individually.

 

[Biznatch]

I don't care what they call it as long as they're testing the releases. I've seen a lot of Windows 8 systems go bad after an update.

I haven't, but I have seen multiple office installs killed from updates. The updates even broke the repair function, so absolutely nothing could open. Only option to fix was a full uninstall/re-install. This has happened to multiple users on different machines and makes my life hell.

 

[Ryokurin]

I haven't, but I have seen multiple office installs killed from updates. The updates even broke the repair function, so absolutely nothing could open. Only option to fix was a full uninstall/re-install. This has happened to multiple users on different machines and makes my life hell.

Part of that is because there's literally 10+ versions of office when you count the retail, oem, and various 365 offerings. And when they claim they are simplifying offerings they tend to make it worse. It may seem like Office is Office but it kind of isn't.

Truth be told, they've kind of been doing this for a few months with 8.1 updates, they are just being more open about it. I don't think tweaks like allowing a computer to be a miracast receiver or adding a checkbox to sharepoint logins will cause a lot of problems.

 

[Mister Natural]

Pretty obvious Microsoft is abandoning the Windows 8 ship just as they did with Vista. It's been widely rumored and consider this a big confirmation. I'd be willing to bet that many upcoming features that were originally promised will never arrive. My guess is that this Tuesday will mark the last of the added "features" and we will only see security updates in the future for this OS.

 

[heatlesssun]

I'd be willing to bet that many upcoming features that were originally promised will never arrive.

Not exactly sure where you're getting a list of promised features. The only thing that Microsoft publicly said as far as new features is that the Start Menu and windowed modern apps would come in a future update to 8.1. This may no longer be the case or it might be that the next version of Windows could be a free update to Windows 8.1 users.

Right now we just don't have enough information about the roadmap to make any god guesses but we should be getting something solid in the next couple of months.

 

[ICOM]

...Right now we just don't have enough information about the roadmap to make any god guesses but we should be getting something solid in the next couple of months.

For the dear sweet love of God

 

[Exavior]

Not exactly sure where you're getting a list of promised features. The only thing that Microsoft publicly said as far as new features is that the Start Menu and windowed modern apps would come in a future update to 8.1. This may no longer be the case or it might be that the next version of Windows could be a free update to Windows 8.1 users.

Right now we just don't have enough information about the roadmap to make any god guesses but we should be getting something solid in the next couple of months.

Actually Microsoft already said after the release of 8.1 that those two features would not be in any windows 8.1 updates but were now going to be pushed back to being windows 9 features. So we do know when those two are on the timeline now. Next release of windows, never for windows 8.1, so anyone expecting those to show up in some 8.1 patch are out of luck

 

[heatlesssun]

Actually Microsoft already said after the release of 8.1 that those two features would not be in any windows 8.1 updates but were now going to be pushed back to being windows 9 features.

I don't think Microsoft ever said this publicly but that's what has been in the rumor mill from the generally reliable sources.

So we do know when those two are on the timeline now. Next release of windows, never for windows 8.1, so anyone expecting those to show up in some 8.1 patch are out of luck

I suspect this is correct, but again, nothing publicly has been said as far as I know. Other than what was said at Build back in April.