Windows Updates
What are Windows updates, and why are they important?
To keep your college-owned computer and our network secure, Microsoft releases two types of updates:
Monthly Quality Updates: These include important security patches and fixes for known issues.
Twice-yearly feature updates: These update the Windows operating system version and include new features, security enhancements, and additional fixes.
To make this process smoother, we’ve introduced a new update system using Microsoft Endpoint Manager (Intune).
Your college device can now receive critical updates from any network (not just on campus).
Updates will install faster and more efficiently.
Regular updates are crucial for safeguarding your device, your data, and the entire college network. We appreciate your commitment to keeping your device current!
How Windows Updates Work on Your College Computer
Your college-owned Windows computer will now automatically download and install both monthly quality updates and feature updates in the background—you won’t need to do anything to start the process.
What You’ll See and What You Will Need to Do:
Once an update is ready and installed, your computer will need to restart to complete the installation.
You will receive a notification that the college has set a restart deadline.
When this appears, you’ll have a few options:
Pick a time – Choose a time that works for you to restart.
Restart tonight – Your computer will restart later in the evening.
Restart now – Restart immediately to complete the update.
Important:
If you don’t choose an option, the system will remind you more frequently as the deadline gets closer.
If you still haven’t restarted by the deadline, your computer will automatically restart to complete the update.
Troubleshooting Windows Updates
Not enough space on disk to install Feature update
Feature updates require a certain percentage of free space on the local disk in order to install the update. You can follow these steps to free up space to perform the update:
Use OneDrive to free up space locally by saving your files there.
Move data to free up disc space.
If you have an external hard drive or USB flash drive with at least 10GB of free space, you can connect it to your computer to proceed with the feature update.
If you do not have an external hard drive or USB flash drive available, please select the “I don’t want to use external storage” link at the bottom of the screen.
From here, Windows will recommend three options
Empty your downloads folder and recycle bin to free up space
Click on Storage Use to get more details on where space is being consumed on your computer
Once you have freed up enough space, the feature update should be installed
For additional help with freeing up space on your college-owned computer, please contact our CIT HelpDesk at 585-245-5588.