Windows updates should run much faster under the 24H2 version. (Image source: ZeroPhoto via Adobe Stock)
Microsoft released the major feature update in the form of Windows 11 24H2 at the beginning of the month.
In addition to new features – and problems – the developers also looked at the update process as such.
Like the company in one Blog post explained, this has been “significantly improved”. The developers have addressed a total of three points compared to the previous update process.
- In the future, manifest files will be processed in parallel; In principle, this processing should also be carried out more efficiently using its own intermediate storage (cache).
- In addition, access to the RAM is improved, which can now be used scalably by Windows Update and, in a sense, always uses the RAM that is currently available.
Two different test scenarios with similar results
To determine what improvement the new update process brings, Microsoft uses a comparison to Windows 11 22H2. The developers do not give any values for 23H2 because the two versions should not differ from each other in the underlying update system.
- As the developers explain, installing security updates should now 45.6 percent faster take place.
- The restart time was also improved by 39.7 percent.
- According to Microsoft, CPU utilization also benefits from the new system and should 15.3 percent lower stand out.
A second test also examined how the new system behaves on computers that have not received any updates for a long period of time. In this specific case, Microsoft specified an “update standstill” of 18 months.
- The installation time is said to be improved by 43.6 percent and the restart time by 33.5 percent; CPU usage is said to be a full 25 percent lower.
You can see what happens if you restart your PC during an update despite a warning in the following video:
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We ignore the Windows warning not to turn off the PC and strange things happen
The new update system of Windows 11 24H2 was already in focus: A “bug” caused an 8.63 GB update cache that could not be removed. As the developers confirm, this is only a display error.
This has now been fixed in the recently released optional KB5044384 patch. Accordingly, the display error should be a thing of the past for all Windows 11 24H2 users during the upcoming patch day on November 12th.
