If you’re the kind of person who installs security updates, on all of your devices as soon as they become available, don’t start polishing your halo just yet.
Microsoft just released a piece of information that might explain why your windows machine is still out-of-date… despite all your care.
They’re released regularly to help protect us from security flaws and vulnerabilities. Cybercriminals love to exploit them. Updates also help us by making software and applications more usable, adding new features.
It’s best practice to run updates as soon as possible on every machine across your business. If you already do this you can give yourself a high five.
There’s a but… according to Microsoft, an enormous number of Windows PCs aren’t up-to-date.
Is it just staff clicking the ‘later’ button when they get the update notifications?
Yes, that may account for some of it. Updates can be time-consuming and sometimes people need to get on with their work. Though we certainly don’t condone this behavior we do understand it.
Technical problems with updates may account for some of these out-of-date PCs, too.
But the majority of update issues are coming from something else entirely… it turns out that Windows machines need to be connected to the internet for a very long time for updates to work properly.
Microsoft’s recently explained this. during an update, a device must remain on and connected to Windows Update. For a minimum of two consecutive hours. Six hours in total. That gives your device time to successfully download the update and install it.
The best way to make sure all your devices are successfully updated every time is to insist that your team leave their devices powered on and connected overnight.
This may also mean that you have to check your Power Management settings, to stop your devices from going into hibernation mode or deep sleep too quickly.
To offset any environmental impact you should also ensure you’re following the recommended power settings on each device.
If you’d like any help checking these settings, and that all of your devices are running the latest security updates, just get in touch. Contact us at Linkedin, Instagram, or Email. Previous article can be found here.
