Windows Autopatch Public Preview

• Organizations can participate in a short Autopatch preview to determine if the service will help them keep Windows PCs up to date.
• Updated documentation released with the preview clarifies what the service supports, as well as the prerequisites.

Windows Autopatch is a Microsoft-hosted service designed to do the following:

• Assess the readiness of devices for Windows updates
• Assign devices to collections of similar devices (“rings”) to receive updates at the same time
• Help configure Windows Update for Business and schedule device reboots to streamline update deployment.

The service is currently in a short preview that began in early June and will end when the product becomes generally available in July 2022. Updated documentation released with the preview clarifies how Autopatch can help an organization manage Windows and related application updates.

What Autopatch Patches

Autopatch delivers Windows Feature and Quality updates made available via the General Availability Channel (the “Patch Tuesday” or “B” patches) and those that are released out-of-band (unscheduled), as well as Office updates made available via the Monthly Enterprise Channel. It can be used to manage updates for the Windows 365 for Enterprise Azure-hosted desktop service, but it cannot be used to manage updates for Windows 365 for Business.