The new feature update version released by Microsoft in early October 2024 includes improvements in the Windows 11 24H2 updates. Let’s review its main new features and the potential impact they may have on our devices.

Contents of a monthly update

To make it easier to explain the improvements introduced, let’s briefly summarize the contents of a Windows 11 update. The update package includes:

• Compiled binary files directly from source code, usually grouped into different components.
• The components are grouped within logical packages.
• Logical packages can contain additional packages. For example, they can group all the packages that belong to a specific edition of Windows (Professional or Enterprise).
• Additionally, there are metadata files that describe the components, packages, and editions. These files are also known as manifests.

What are the improvements in the Windows 11 24H2 updates?

Taking as a reference how updates were installed in Windows 10, there are three key improvement points:

1. Parallel processing of manifests: Improves change detection using both reverse and forward differentials.
2. Improved manifest reading and analysis: After the manifests are read and analyzed for the first time, this information is stored in a cache to improve access speed the next time they are used. This helps improve efficiency, especially in cases where a component is referenced by multiple packages.
3. Scalable use of RAM: RAM usage has been increased during the process to store the manifest cache when sufficient memory is available. Accesses have also been optimized in cases where RAM is limited to perform the update task.

Are the improvements in the Windows 11 24H2 updates really noticeable?

In the tests published by Microsoft, comparing the same monthly patch installed on a device running Windows 11 22H2 and another with Windows 11 24H2, the following aspects have been significantly optimized:

• Installation time: Up to 45% reduction.
• Restart time: Up to 39% reduction.
• CPU usage during the Windows Update process: Up to 25% reduction.

And in Windows version updates are there improvements as well?

That’s right. The main improvement is that if Microsoft applications are already updated before performing the upgrade, it will no longer be necessary to download them again. Prior to version 24H2, whenever the update package was downloaded, all components that had been updated with the version change were downloaded as well.

Now, with version 24H2, the system checks whether the application is already updated on the device, which can save up to 200MB per endpoint simply by avoiding the need to re-download Microsoft Edge when it is already up to date.

In conclusion, these improvements in the Windows 11 24H2 updates help reduce the time required for installing updates and the associated restarts that interrupt users. Over time, this will likely help gradually improve Windows’ reputation regarding updates, and users will probably get used to these improvements very quickly.