One year later, enterprises still wrestle with Windows 7's cumulative updates
More than a year after Microsoft changed its decades-long security updating practices, enterprises running Windows 7 continue to struggle with the new system, patch experts said today.
"I still see people asking for individual updates, even on the [Windows] 10 operating system," said Susan Bradley in an email reply to questions. Bradley is known in Windows circles for her expertise on Microsoft's patching processes: She writes on the topic for the Windows Secrets newsletter and moderates the PatchMangement.org mailing list, where IT administrators discuss update tradecraft.
Bradley was referring to Microsoft's debut last year of radically-different cumulative updates for Windows 7 and 8.1, a change to the long-established practice of letting customers choose which patches they applied. From October 2016 on, updates for the two older Windows versions were comprehensive wholes, not collections of separate patches that could be selectively applied.