Good news! Soon, Windows 11 updates won’t take forever thanks to 24H2’s speed boost
Windows 11 users, I have some good news (for a change) about the new feature update for 2024, version 24H2. Thanks to major improvements in the way the Windows Update app works, 24H2 installs faster than previous major updates.
Microsoft published a blog post which explains how changes are being worked on behind the scenes that will speed up the installation of updates, and the process will also consume significantly less system resources, which helps to speed up the installation process.
Thanks to the 24H2 maintenance stack, a crucial software component responsible for installing updates in the operating system, installation is 45.6% faster and restart time 39.7% faster than we saw with Windows 11 version 22H2 (and 23H2, since both versions share the same maintenance stack) when installing cumulative updates for devices that were up to date and regularly maintained.
Systems running older versions of Windows 11 also saw big improvements, according to Microsoft testing. On a computer that hasn’t been updated in a year and a half, Microsoft claims the installation improvements are 43.6% faster and it takes 33.5% less time to restart. Good news everywhere.
As described by Microsoft, this was done in a number of ways. First, Microsoft implemented parallel processing, which allowed Windows PC devices to process multiple parts of the update at the same time. Second, it used smart caching, which means that when Windows 11 processes part of an update, it saves (or ‘caches’) that information so that the same parts of the process aren’t re-executed twice.
This helps speed things up when the same parts of the update appear repeatedly. Finally, updates will now make better use of RAM (your computer’s temporary memory storage), by checking if your PC is low on RAM and adjusting the update process accordingly to avoid slowdowns.
Faster, more efficient updates everywhere for Windows 11
Faster cumulative security updates aren’t the only improvement; larger feature updates (which provide new tools and features) are also made more efficient. This includes Edge, Microsoft’s default browser for Windows 11, which saves about 200MB of space during larger feature updates. You can read more about the technical details of all these processes in Microsoft’s blog post.
If Microsoft has the numbers right, you should feel like updates are being installed significantly faster. The time it takes to download and install updates is one of the biggest complaints you hear from Windows 11 users and this means less downtime and less frustration waiting for your device to update or restart. Using fewer system resources during the update process means that you should be able to use your computer for various tasks while the updates are installed so that you can continue with your activities.