Windows 10: Real-world practices to optimize Windows 10 update deployments

Brink · Mar 13, 2020

Since the initial launch of Windows 10 in 2015, many of you have sought release-over-release efficiencies to ensure that the devices and users in your environments remain protected and productive. Based on discussions with, and feedback received from enterprise customers around the world, we recognize that the journey of keeping devices up to date and, more specifically, building âupdate velocity,â isn't always clear.

To provide clarity to IT professionals managing Windows 10 environments, today we published an in-depth guide on Optimizing Windows 10 update adoption. In this guide, you'll find details on best practices and tips to help you increase update velocity, including:

Tuning update policies for increased velocity. If you have devices configured to receive updates from Windows Update for Business or Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), explore the tradeoffs between velocity and productivityâand better understand the impact of policy and device settings to the devices across your organization. In addition, find out how to create a successful update process for low-activity devices.

Tuning devices for increased velocity. If you use any update management technology, including Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, learn more about the system policies and configurations that impact update success. This guide will walk you through infrastructure optimization, adjusting your network utilization choices, and addressing network congestion.

Monitoring and enforcement. Fine-tune your update deployment processes by diving into data to discover what's working and what still needs to be addressed. Learn techniques for troubleshooting and find ways to continually improve the update process in your organization.

Deployment strategies. If you are new to Windows deployment practices, this is a great place to begin. Learn about adopting a service management mindset, find recommended practices for feature update deployments, and discover tools that can assist you in identifying the right diversity of devices to help make feature update (and security update) deployments more efficient.

Policy setting reference. Get a handy checklist you can reference when applying the policies and settings recommended in this document.

In creating this guide, we've focused on collecting real-world best practices to share with you; practices that can help you and your organization achieve update velocity improvements while keeping your devices protected and productive. We hope you find this new guide helpful.

There's no time like the present to simplify the way you roll out updates across your organization. Download your free guide to Optimizing Windows 10 update adoption and get started today.
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Source: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/...s/ba-p/1227825

:)

Junaid_A · Mar 13, 2020

How does Windows Delivery Optimization detect the bandwidth available?

Hi Jason,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

In the heart of the Windows kernel there is a networking stack. It contains a suite of algorithms that would determine the available bandwidth.

You can use the PowerShell cmdlets to monitor the delivery optimization.
Get-DeliveryOptimizationStatusreturns a real-time snapshot of all current Delivery Optimization jobs. For more information, I would suggest you
to refer to the article: Set up Delivery Optimization for Windows 10 updates

Additional info:

Windows Update Delivery Optimization and privacy

Delivery Optimization for Windows 10 updates

Delivery Optimization reference

If you have further queries, I would suggest you to post your query in the
TechNet Forums, where we have support professionals
well equipped with the knowledge on Delivery Optimization.

Brink · Mar 13, 2020

Windows Update for Business & Windows Analytics: real-world experience

Over the past two months, we have shared insight into how Windows Update for Business leverages diagnostic data to monitor servicing channels and quickly address issues. We also provided suggested configuration guidance around setting up automatic updates, managing feature and quality updates, enforcing compliance, and more.

We have seen many IT departments simplify their deployment strategies using Windows Update for Business to more quickly improve productivity and the Windows 10 experience for their end users. I’d like to share the experience of one of those customers to help you better understand how you can leverage Windows Update for Business—in conjunction with Windows Analytics—to help you do the same.

In a recent implementation, a customer was using Windows Analytics to investigate gaps in their update experience. After running the Upgrade Readiness script on a sample set of PCs to identify why some PCs were having difficulty getting up to date, they found that a critical line of business (LOB) application had multiple versions with different prerequisites. Windows Analytics provided them with the insights they needed to audit and align which version of the application was running on which devices, and they were able to move forward. After configuring a Commercial ID and turning on the telemetry settings in System Center Configuration Manager, they implemented a task sequence to execute the monthly Upgrade Readiness script, and successfully updated their remaining PCs.

With Windows Analytics flowing broadly across their PCs, the customer was ready to use Windows Update for Business to implement monthly quality and semi-annual feature updates across their organization. They set up a “pilot” servicing ring with a set of Azure AD joined devices using a static device group and, because they were already using Configuration Manager, configured co-management so that they could manage devices use both Configuration Manager and Microsoft Intune. The pilot ring was configured so that devices would receive quality updates from Windows Update for Business and be monitored via Windows Analytics Update Compliance with regard to the status of monthly quality update installation and overall delivery optimization.

After the success of its Windows Update for Business servicing pilot, the customer decided to move forward with taking monthly quality updates from the Internet for all of their Windows 10 devices. They moved the slider bar in Configuration Manager all the way over to Intune and set out on their journey to broadly adopt the Windows as a service model.

Nothing excites us more than hearing how you apply tools to embrace servicing and simplify the delivery of Windows 10 and updates in your organization. As a result, I’ld like to share a few other key learnings from working with the customer whose story is outlined above:

They initially tried to deploy three rings (two targeted, one broad), but with 1,000 PCs to manage, they found they could accomplish their goals using one pilot ring and one broad ring since all of their applications were fully compatible and they were using the 64-bit versions of Windows and Office. Having only two rings also made it easier to manage updates from the Windows Update for Business side.

The customer is using Update Compliance and Delivery Optimization to refine and optimize peer-to-peer (P2P) distribution. They are looking at moving away from default settings and using Download Mode, combined with Group IDs, to service other departments if they are in separate locations or have similar circumstances.

With success taking monthly quality and semi-annual feature updates from Windows Update for Business, with co-management working well, and with active monitoring in place using Windows Analytics, the customer is now interested in moving additional workloads to Intune.

Additional resources

For more information on configuring and deploying updates, please see the following resources:

Windows Analytics overview

Windows as a service landing page

Overview of Windows as a service: servicing channels

Build deployment rings for Windows 10 updates

Deploy updates using Windows Update for Business

Deploy Windows 10 updates using Windows Server Update Services

Deploy Windows 10 updates using System Center Configuration Manager

Windows 10 IT pro forums

Click to expand...

Source: Windows Update for Business Windows Analytics: a real-world experience - Microsoft Tech Community - 242417

Brink · Mar 13, 2020

Windows Update for Business & Windows Analytics: real-world experience

Over the past two months, we have shared insight into how Windows Update for Business leverages diagnostic data to monitor servicing channels and quickly address issues. We also provided suggested configuration guidance around setting up automatic updates, managing feature and quality updates, enforcing compliance, and more.

We have seen many IT departments simplify their deployment strategies using Windows Update for Business to more quickly improve productivity and the Windows 10 experience for their end users. I’d like to share the experience of one of those customers to help you better understand how you can leverage Windows Update for Business—in conjunction with Windows Analytics—to help you do the same.

In a recent implementation, a customer was using Windows Analytics to investigate gaps in their update experience. After running the Upgrade Readiness script on a sample set of PCs to identify why some PCs were having difficulty getting up to date, they found that a critical line of business (LOB) application had multiple versions with different prerequisites. Windows Analytics provided them with the insights they needed to audit and align which version of the application was running on which devices, and they were able to move forward. After configuring a Commercial ID and turning on the telemetry settings in System Center Configuration Manager, they implemented a task sequence to execute the monthly Upgrade Readiness script, and successfully updated their remaining PCs.

With Windows Analytics flowing broadly across their PCs, the customer was ready to use Windows Update for Business to implement monthly quality and semi-annual feature updates across their organization. They set up a “pilot” servicing ring with a set of Azure AD joined devices using a static device group and, because they were already using Configuration Manager, configured co-management so that they could manage devices use both Configuration Manager and Microsoft Intune. The pilot ring was configured so that devices would receive quality updates from Windows Update for Business and be monitored via Windows Analytics Update Compliance with regard to the status of monthly quality update installation and overall delivery optimization.

After the success of its Windows Update for Business servicing pilot, the customer decided to move forward with taking monthly quality updates from the Internet for all of their Windows 10 devices. They moved the slider bar in Configuration Manager all the way over to Intune and set out on their journey to broadly adopt the Windows as a service model.

Nothing excites us more than hearing how you apply tools to embrace servicing and simplify the delivery of Windows 10 and updates in your organization. As a result, I’ld like to share a few other key learnings from working with the customer whose story is outlined above:

They initially tried to deploy three rings (two targeted, one broad), but with 1,000 PCs to manage, they found they could accomplish their goals using one pilot ring and one broad ring since all of their applications were fully compatible and they were using the 64-bit versions of Windows and Office. Having only two rings also made it easier to manage updates from the Windows Update for Business side.

The customer is using Update Compliance and Delivery Optimization to refine and optimize peer-to-peer (P2P) distribution. They are looking at moving away from default settings and using Download Mode, combined with Group IDs, to service other departments if they are in separate locations or have similar circumstances.

With success taking monthly quality and semi-annual feature updates from Windows Update for Business, with co-management working well, and with active monitoring in place using Windows Analytics, the customer is now interested in moving additional workloads to Intune.

Additional resources

For more information on configuring and deploying updates, please see the following resources:

Windows Analytics overview

Windows as a service landing page

Overview of Windows as a service: servicing channels

Build deployment rings for Windows 10 updates

Deploy updates using Windows Update for Business

Deploy Windows 10 updates using Windows Server Update Services

Deploy Windows 10 updates using System Center Configuration Manager

Windows 10 IT pro forums

Click to expand...

Source: Windows Update for Business Windows Analytics: a real-world experience - Microsoft Tech Community - 242417

Windows 10: Real-world practices to optimize Windows 10 update deployments

Real-world practices to optimize Windows 10 update deployments

Real-world practices to optimize Windows 10 update deployments

Real-world practices to optimize Windows 10 update deployments

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