Microsoft wants enterprise IT administrators to play guinea pig by deploying a lot more fixes to Windows 7 and Server 2012 R2, another step in getting customers to help test patches before rolling them out everyone.

In new guidance outlined during a session at the company’s Ignite conference three weeks ago, Thierry Paquay, a principal group program manager on the Windows Update team, told corporate IT administrators they should transform their update practice — a process that if adopted would shift older OSes, including Windows 7, to a model very much like the one that Windows 10 will use.

Rather than deploy only security updates, Paquay urged enterprises to also roll out optional updates — typically one-shot fixes to specific bugs — as they are released, then back fill with the “rollup” updates Microsoft will regularly issue. Those rollups are collections of dozens or even scores of bug fixes that Microsoft will deliver for older OSes.

“Our recommendation is that you deploy [the optional] hotfixes proactively,” said Paquay during a 70-minute talk. He also asked corporations to install the cumulative rollups.

SOURCE: computerworld.com