Windows 11 Whenever Update Channel

• In Feb. 2022, Microsoft made two Quality updates generally available: one on the regular Patch Tuesday, and one a week later.
• The second Quality update and announcement changed the definition of Quality updates, which may now contain both fixes and Feature updates.
• Mixing features and fixes in Quality updates requires more thorough testing and puts organizations at unnecessary risk by potentially delaying deployment of a fix for an exploitable vulnerability.

One week after the general availability of the February Patch Tuesday Quality update, Microsoft released a second Quality update that contained a mix of fixes and Feature updates. The Quality update was accompanied by a blog post by Panos Panay, chief product officer Windows + devices, which effectively changed the Windows life-cycle policy. The result is that going forward, organizations need to test Quality updates more thoroughly to understand which feature changes break the organization’s line-of-business applications, require additional training, or create increased help desk support volume. This change could potentially delay the deployment of critical fixes.