Microsoft updating has been a mess, but a newly announced change may help streamline the process Earlier this week, Microsoft made an official announcement that Office patches — previously released on Patch Tuesday — would henceforth appear in two groups. Nonsecurity patches would released be on the first Tuesday of the month, security patches would appear on the second Tuesday. Now in a revision to that post, we get the rest of the picture: Office Click-to-Run will get updates on the second Tuesday. That’s a big change, because CtR updates in the past have been all over the calendar: Last month there was one on Feb. 9 (16.0.6366) and another on Feb. 17 (16.0.6568.2025). This month there was a new CtR version on March 3 (16.0.6568.2034), on March 4 (16.0.6568.2036), on March 17 (16.0.6741.2017), and on March 24 (16.0.6741.2021). This has become a major concern because various CtR versions have broken important Office features — including, most recently, the Outlook Calendar bug that re-appeared on Feb. 9, the freeze on opening documents bug on Feb. 9, and the POP3 disabling bug on Feb. 16. Here’s how the patching schedule looks now, per the TechNet blog: Starting in April, the non-security updates will be released in Microsoft Update and the Windows Server Update Service (WSUS) on the first Tuesday of the month, which is April 5 in this case. This will include all updates that have the Critical or Definition classification. Updates with the Security classification will continue to release on second Tuesday as usual. This change applies only to the MSI version of Office. Office Click-To-Run (C2R) will release on second Tuesday. This is all superimposed, of course, on the Windows patches, which are still focused on the second Tuesday of the month, but tend to dribble out at other times as well. In March, for example, we saw Windows 7 and 8.1 patches and updates on March 1, 8 (Patch Tuesday), 10, 15, 22, and 23. Windows 10 patches normally fall on Patch Tuesday, but they too have an independent cadence — in March we saw Win10 patches on March 1 and 8. We’re a long way from the old approach of security patches on the second Tuesday and other patches on the fourth Tuesday. This month we had patches in Windows and Office Click-to-Run on March 1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 15, 17, 22, 23, and 24. And the last day of March isn’t over yet. Related content opinion On a personal note... Woody Leonhard looks back a bit, looks ahead to retirement — and shares good news about who's picking up the Windows patching torch. By Woody Leonhard Nov 09, 2020 3 mins Small and Medium Business Computers Windows news analysis Get Microsoft's October patches installed — and seriously consider Win10 2004 Odd ancillary patches have their problems, but the mainstream October patches look pretty reliable. The big question: Is Win10 version 2004 up to your stability standards. I’m skeptical -- especially because it has few worthwhile improvements. By Woody Leonhard Oct 30, 2020 6 mins Small and Medium Business Microsoft Computers news analysis Microsoft Patch Alert: October 2020 The big news with this month’s patches – aside from the usual smorgasbord of strange errors – has more to do with the patches that are outside the regular cumulative update stream. Remarkably, we didn’t get any security fixes By Woody Leonhard Oct 22, 2020 189 mins Small and Medium Business Microsoft Office Microsoft news analysis With Patch Tuesday here, be sure Windows Update is paused With all the flotsam floating around, it’s easy to lose sight of Second Tuesdays. October’s arrives tomorrow and, with it, another round of Windows and Office patches. Take a minute to make sure you aren’t in the front lines, as eve By Woody Leonhard Oct 12, 2020 5 mins Small and Medium Business Microsoft Windows Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe