Windows 10: Call to action: review your Windows Update for Business deferral value

Brink · Apr 3, 2019

With Windows Update for Business, an organization can take advantage of cloud-delivered updates, while still creating and managing a ring-based deployment approach. Using Windows Update for Business deferrals, you can group devices into deployment rings to control and manage the deployment of both monthly quality updates and semi-annual feature updates.

If devices under your management are still running Windows 10 Pro or Windows 10 Pro for Workstation, version 1703, your devices will reach end of service on April 9, 2019 if you have configured both of the following Windows Update for Business policies:

Branch readiness is configured as Semi-Annual Channel (SAC)

Feature update deferral is configured as 274 days or more

In order avoid this, you need to set your feature update deferral policy to 273 days or less.

To calculate the maximum number of deferral days you can configure and remain in service, determine the number of days between the release date of the next version your devices are moving to and the end of service date for your current version. In the case of Windows 10, version 1709, there are 273 days between the release date for Windows 10, version 1803 (July 10, 2018) and the end of service date for Windows 10, version 1709 (April 9, 2019).

How deferral policies work in Windows Update for Business

A feature update deferral is enforced at the time a device checks Windows Update for updates. If the configured number of deferral days has passed, the applicable update—which will have been in service for the number of configured deferral days—is offered.

Currently, the end of service date is not considered when evaluating a feature update deferral in Windows Update for Business. This, combined with the ability to delay the targeted phase of your deployment by setting branch readiness to SAC, makes it possible to defer past the end of service date for the currently installed release. After talking with customers and evaluating data on how deferrals are used across a broad set of organizations and devices, we do not believe that organizations using deferrals intend for their devices to reach end of service as those devices would no longer receive monthly security and quality updates.

For devices with branch readiness set to SAC, we recommend a feature update deferral be configured to no more than 180 days, which would ensure that devices under your management will always be in service. In the future, we will make changes to Windows Update for Business to safeguard against the condition where an extended deferral can result in devices reaching end of service.

With Windows 10, version 1903 and later releases, we have simplified the configuration as I explained in my previous blog post, which will also prevent a device from reaching end of service due to a deferral policy.

For more information about end of service dates for Windows 10 releases, please see the Windows lifecycle fact sheet.
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Source: Call to action: review your Windows Update for Business deferral values - Microsoft Tech Community - 394244

:)

BW1212 · Apr 3, 2019

Update Deferral in Win10 Mobile Enterprise

It appears from the Windows Update For Business that I can defer "OS Updates" for a maximum of 4 wks and "OS Upgrades" for a maximum of 8 months. Is there any way to completely shut off all updates? If so, what will happen if I exceed the maximum deferral
time? (i.e. I turn it back on after the max deferral)

Brink · Apr 3, 2019

Windows Update for Business and the retirement of SAC-T in Windows 10

In my post last May on Windows 10 and the “disappearing” SAC-T,I explained how we simplified and aligned our Windows servicing terminology with Office, reflecting that there are two Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) releases each year. I also explained that with Windows, there was never actually a Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted), or SAC-T, release; rather, SAC-T merely reflected a milestone for the semi-annual release. Unless you were using Windows Update for Business, the SAC and SAC-T designations had no impact on when your devices would be updated. At the time, we had not yet completed the work necessary to deliver the changes needed for Windows Update for Business to reflect the alignment with Office so we continued to show dates for both the SAC and SAC-T milestones on the Windows 10 release information page.

We have now completed that work. Beginning with Windows 10, version 1903 (the next feature update for Windows 10), the Windows 10 release information page will no longer list SAC-T information for version 1903 and future feature updates. Instead, you will find a single entry for each new SAC release. In addition, if you are using Windows Update for Business, you will see new UI and behavior to reflect that there is only one release date for each SAC release. If you use System Center Configuration Manager, Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), or other management tools, there will now only be one feature update published to WSUS, and this will occur at the time of release.

With this upcoming change, Windows Update for Business customers may have a few questions and I’ll try to address those now. To restate what I said above, unless you are using Windows Update for Business, the changes discussed below have no impact on when your devices get updated.

With the release of Windows 10, version 1903, how will my Windows Update for Business configuration and execution reflect the removal of SAC-T?

For releases prior to version 1903, Windows Update for Business customers had two settings they could utilize to designate when feature updates should be installed on their devices. The first was the branch readiness level (SAC or SAC-T), and the second was the deferral period, which specified the number of days after the branch readiness level-based date before an update was offered to a device.

Once your organization’s devices have been updated to Windows 10, version 1903, the configuration of Windows Update for Business will be simpler, enabling you to choose a single deferral value based solely on the SAC release date. That means, if you are trying to set up validation flights in your environment using Windows Update for Business, or stage updates in waves, you will do so from a common release start date, which should simplify the deployment process overall.

I want to clarify; with these changes, we will not change your deferral value. Instead, it will remain as it was configured following the update to version 1903. In addition, while all Windows Update for Business device deferrals will now be based on the release date (you will no longer have to configure this), you will continue to have the option to enroll devices in the Windows Insider Program and choose a pre-release ring, such as Slow, Fast, or Release Preview.

*Arrow How to Defer Feature and Quality Updates in Windows 10

The image below shows the Settings panel as it looks today with Windows 10, version 1809.

When version 1903 is released, it will look like this:

As you can see, it shows only pause and deferral settings; Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted) is no longer presented as an option. Again, this change will only be seen once you have deployed Windows 10, version 1903 and will only impact future feature updates after version 1903. Devices enrolled in the Windows Insider Program; however, can already see these changes.

How is Microsoft going to handle the transition to Windows 10, version 1903 for customers who have their branch readiness level configured for SAC?

As I said above, with version 1903, we will cease to publish both SAC and SAC-T dates. Each release will have a single SAC release date so we will handle this one-time transition in the following manner:

Windows Update for Business customers who have configured a deferral based on the SAC-T branch-readiness level (remember, this really is the actual release date), devices will be offered the update once the configured number of deferral days have passed. Thus, no change from previous releases.

For devices that have been configured with a branch readiness of SAC, for the upgrade to version 1903 only, we will add an additional 60 days to the configured deferral. This will simulate the delay previously experienced when Microsoft declared the SAC milestone. For example, if your device is currently configured to defer updates 30 days from the SAC release date, for the upgrade to version 1903 (and this time only), we would append a 60-day delay to that configured 30-day deferral–meaning that the device would be upgraded 90 days (60+30) after version 1903 is released. (Note that the additional 60 days will be handled on our service side, and will not be reflected in your device configuration.)

For subsequent feature updates after version 1903, your Windows Update for Business configuration deferral value will be whatever it was before version 1903; we are not modifying that value.

For future upgrades beyond Windows 10, version 1903, to establish an additional delay and recreate your deployments rings on the schedule you want, you will need to update your deferral value. Using the same example above, you would change the deferral value from 30 to 90 days. Or, if you want to create a three-ring deployment model, you could have three groups of devices, designated simply with deferral values from the single release date, perhaps 30, 60, and 90 days.

If you’re interested in learning more, or would like to see how you can use tools like Configuration Manager, WSUS, or Windows Update for Business to manage updates, see the Quick guide to Windows as a service. To learn more about Windows as a service, check out the Windows as a service gateway on Docs.
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Source: Windows Update for Business and the retirement of SAC-T - Microsoft Tech Community - 339523

Manjunath_H · Apr 3, 2019

Unable to update review on Microsoft store apps

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

We understand your concern and we appreciate the effort and time that you have taken to provide your review on store apps. However, we would suggest you to try signing out from Microsoft Store and sign in back and check if you are getting the
Update option. If the issue still persists, please follow the steps mentioned below and check.

Search for wsreset.exe in search bar.

Right click on the Run command and select Run as administrator.

A command prompt window will open after which the Microsoft Store will open.

Then try updating the review.

You can also log on to online
Microsoft Store and provide your review suggestions.

Regards.

Windows 10: Call to action: review your Windows Update for Business deferral value

Call to action: review your Windows Update for Business deferral value

Call to action: review your Windows Update for Business deferral value

Call to action: review your Windows Update for Business deferral value

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