The functional Microsoft's system, which from Windows 10 onwards is considered "Windows as a Service", is constantly updated with new features and of course receives the necessary security updates.
Of course, sometimes Windows Update does not work as planned, resulting in the inability to install certain packages. It should be noted that there are those who do not update their systems for many different reasons.
But if you use pause or skip updates, this can lead to delay updates and increase the size of update packages.
So for the best performance of Windows Update, Microsoft starts removing older quality updates from Windows Update servers and these updates will now appear as "expired updates".
Older and redundant packages will automatically expire, which Microsoft believes will improve its performance Windows Updates και θα μειώσει το μέγεθος της προσωρινής μνήμηs that each update uses. Older updates will be replaced by newer ones and this will result in shorter Windows Update scan times.
Patch Tuesday updates are known to include fixes to all previous updates that have been released to the operating system. So if a package has expired, you will be able to get the fixes contained in it by installing the latest Patch Tuesday.
Expired packages will not appear in your Windows Update scan results, which may reduce internet data usage. This will be important for those with limited internet access.
"This KB is no longer available from Windows Update, Microsoft Update Catalog or other distribution channels, we recommend updating your devices with the latest security update. The latest security update is cumulative and contains all packages ", he says Microsoft.
Windows Updates will evaluate packages regularly, and the status "expired" (or expired) will appear on the Microsoft website, as shown in the image above.
As mentioned in a previous post about Windows 11, Microsoft is also testing a feature called "Update Stack Packages“. This is a new way of updating that will bring improvements before installing a major update.
The first Update Stack Packages were released with Build 22478 for Windows Insiders and are currently available to a limited number of users with no significant changes.