Buzz
Most users tend to 'delay' Windows 10 updates because the current version is running smoothly and efficiently. Furthermore, installing new updates often consumes a significant amount of time.
What exactly are Dynamic Updates on Windows 10?
However, this presents an opportunity for attackers to exploit vulnerabilities in older Windows versions. Hence, Microsoft has introduced a new feature called Dynamic Updates. To understand Dynamic Updates on Windows 10, readers can refer to the article below by Mytour.
1. What is Dynamic Updates on Windows 10?
Dynamic Updates on Windows is an option and an automated updating process on Windows, retrieving and installing all available updates in one go, reducing the need for consecutive installations. This plays a crucial role when feature updates on Windows 10 are installed on a system and may be part of an installation or a new update.
Besides Windows 10, previous Windows versions including Windows 8.1 and Windows Server also support Dynamic Updates. The feature is beneficial for organizations and end-users to ensure their Windows 10 devices are equipped, update modern features (as part of an in-place upgrade), and ensure the integrity of features on demand (FOD) and language packs (LP) previously installed.
The feature is designed to compile and download components related to the update process or system stability during installation.
Without the Dynamic Updates feature, users or system admins would have to manually install certain specific components, such as updating drivers or installing new cumulative updates, ... .
On the other hand, with Dynamic Updates, users don't need to install separate updates as part of the in-place upgrade process. Note that these updates are enabled by default, however, users and system admins can easily disable them if desired.
Simply put, using Dynamic Updates on Windows 10 reduces the need for installing individual updates for recently installed systems and simplifies user device provisioning by installing the latest updates in just one step.
2. Core Components Updated by Dynamic Updates
According to Microsoft, Dynamic Updates on Windows 10 can update the following components:
+, Setup: patches or any files Setup requires to update features.
+, SafeOS: bug fixes for Safe OS used to update the recovery environment (WinRE) in Windows.
+, Servicing Stack Update (SSU)/Critical DU: resolves critical Servicing Stack issues to ensure the smooth feature update process.
+, Latest Cumulative Update / General Distribution Release: installs the latest cumulative distribution release.
+, Language Pack and Features on Demand: Preserves the integrity of previously installed language packs and optional features by reinstalling them.
+, Driver: specific drivers for Dynamic Update releases.
3. How Dynamic Updates Work
The step for Dynamic Updates is one of the initial steps activated during the Windows Setup installation process. This process typically involves contacting Microsoft and retrieving update content applied to the installation media.
Dynamic Updates content is directly downloaded from HTTPS endpoints (meaning accessing URLs stored by Microsoft and retrieving Dynamic Updates content). Technically, Windows 10 Setup accesses the HTTPS endpoint to retrieve Dynamic Content.
Once the content is retrieved, it's applied to the operating system installation media, making the installation process much simpler.
4. Enabling / Disabling Dynamic Content
Unless disabled, Dynamic Updates feature is enabled by default on all Windows feature update processes. Users are prompted with the choice to allow Dynamic Update or not. On the Windows Setup screen, a notification will appear: 'Get updates, drivers, and optional features' as shown below:
Unmonitored installations have a clause to disable Dynamic Updates. By default, this clause is set to True, meaning Dynamic Updates are enabled. To disable Dynamic Updates, we need to set the value to False.
This article from Mytour just answered your question about what Dynamic Updates on Windows 10 are. Essentially, the Dynamic Updates feature on Windows 10 is extremely useful because it can address update-related installation issues during updates. Hopefully, this article has provided you with some useful new information. You can also refer to the article What happens when you reset Windows 10 here to decide whether to reset your operating system or not.
