Patch Management for Windows with Microsoft Windows 10

The Patch Management for Windows N-able Engine supports the download and installation of Windows 10 updates to devices on Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise and Educational, and each of the service branches. When you enable Patch Management for Windows for a device, the Windows agent overrides the Windows update settings on the device. All Windows updates are approved and declined through Patch Management for Windows.

Windows 10 Monthly Quality Update Types

Windows 10 monthly quality updates have three types: B, C, and D.

Patch Management for Windows uses the Windows Update Agent (WUA) and supports the installation of B patches. Released on Patch Tuesday (the second Tuesday of the month), B patches are considered the most important update type. They include new security fixes, security fixes from earlier B updates and bug fixes previously released in C and D updates.

C and D are considered optional "preview" updates and are not considered an automatic install by Windows Update. The C and D releases are focused on new bug fixes and improvements for non-security issues, they do not include any security updates.

The Microsoft blog post Windows 10 update servicing cadence provides further information on monthly quality update types and their release cycle.

While the Windows agent takes over the Windows update settings, this setting is still accessible to the user. At any time, the user can choose to check for updates and change advanced options such as Defer Upgrades or Give me updates for other Microsoft products when I update Windows.

These settings only relate to Microsoft updates and do not affect the deployment of supported third-party application patches through Patch Management for Windows.

Defer updates

With Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise editions, users can choose to defer feature updates. When a user enables the Defer upgrades option in the Windows Settings control panel, Windows postpones feature updates while allowing the user's device to still receive security and other updates. If the user chooses this option, feature upgrades are postponed for a year. Information on Windows Update for Business available in the Microsoft article Deploy updates using Windows Update for Business.

For more information on Patch Management for Windows and Windows 10 support, see Windows 10 supportability statement.

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