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Depending on how much you know – the vast majority know little – about Windows, it’s very likely that you don’t know what Patch Tuesday is and its importance.
Although in most practical situations it may seem irrelevant to know something about it, as we will see later, if there is concern about aspects such as security, performance and operation of Windows, it is essential to know at least the main thing.
If this is still not an issue that seems relevant to you, know that in many cases, even other programs that run on your device or even indirectly your website or email account, may be affected to some degree.
What is Patch Tuesday?
Specifically in the case of Microsoft’s operating system and in a very brief way, Patch Tuesday is an unofficial terminology, although widely used in the field and even by some channels of the company, to designate a package of software updates for its products.
In general, the software industry uses the term “patch”, which means correction or patch and this is precisely the function of one, to correct any problem – the also known bugs – that has been detected in any program and that only has been identified after the release of the version to which the patch refers.
Over time, patches also began to have the role of improving performance, implementing an improvement, offering a new feature, or even removing one. That is, currently a patch changes a program until a new version is made available with the fix / improvement / change permanently incorporated.
Specifically in the case of Microsoft, the addition of the word “Tuesday”, which means Tuesday, happened because since October 2003, it has become customary for this update package to occur every second Tuesday of each month.
Eventually the company may release other patches in later weeks and on Wednesdays as well, but usually when that is done, or are critical security updates to the operating system – also called zero-day updates – and that cannot wait until the next Patch Tuesday or just some improvements that are not eligible to be in the main package.
It’s worth noting that usually Patch Tuesday may contain a series of patches, each of which is intended for a fix/improvement/change.
Why is Patch Tuesday important?
From the previous explanation, you can already guess why Patch Tuesday is important.
Windows, Linux, or any operating system, basically works as an intermediary between the various programs that we have installed and the user, with the hardware. It is only possible through it, that what you type in a text editor or spreadsheet, is incorporated into the respective file. As it is also thanks to him that it is possible to save, delete, print, listen, read and everything else that you do on a device.
Thus, the 100% operation according to what is expected and desired from any installed application, depends on the integrity of the operating system.
Some failures that occur are not exactly due to the installed program, but when it makes use of one or more features that contain a bug and whose origin is the operating system. This is the case of the Net Framework, a systems and application development platform, which, for example, is used by many games.
In fact, the Net Framework is an item frequently included in the Tuesday updates.
Failures in it can cause crashes, unexpected closures, excessive consumption of resources, among others. Of course there are problems in the various programs that we may have installed, but in these cases the responsibility for making a correction patch available lies with the respective developer.
But one of the most important aspects is related to the security of the environment as a whole, so much so that a large number of corrections contained in Patch Tuesday involve vulnerabilities discovered and which, if exploited, compromise user security, as it is possible to verify in the Microsoft Update Catalog.
This is the case with web browsers, which are currently an essential element not only for accessing a website, but often an essential element when using an online office suite, accessing files stored in a cloud, the webmail of your e-mail account mail, the administration of your website based on WordPress and a multitude of other services based on cloud computing.
Depending on the nature of the problem, your site may be subject to invasion, leaking of sensitive data from accounts that are accessed through the browser and even increased susceptibility to malware, remembering that the Microsoft Defender, Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool it’s the Windows SmartScreen are some of the Windows components related to protection against different types of digital threats and that are usually included in Tuesday updates!
How to use Patch Tuesday correctly?
Once you’ve understood everything you need to know about it, your next question should be how to use Patch Tuesday correctly, right?
The good news is that in most cases, nothing needs to be done. This is because if Windows has been installed and configured according to Microsoft’s standard, Windows Update already automatically checks for the availability of any updates.
However, historically there is no lack of examples of updates that have brought with them other problems that are even more serious than the ones they fixed.
What to do then?
There are two alternatives that may vary depending on the version of Windows you have installed on your device.
The first is to pause automatic updates by accessing the “Windows Update” item in the operating system settings and choosing the number of weeks (1 to 5 weeks).
It is recommended to select two weeks, which is usually enough time to fix problems that eventually accompanied an update and make the “fix of the fix” available. After the break, the download and installation must necessarily be done.
With paused updates, it is possible to check in advance for any problems present in patches, as technology sites and blogs often report problems that have occurred with them.
In addition, it is always possible to manually perform the update on days and times when the machine is idle, because depending on the set of updated resources, there may be a large consumption of RAM memory, processing and reading and writing to disk, degrading performance during the use.
The second is disabling/stopping automatic updates, which we don’t recommend as it requires you to remember to manually check for availability of any updates and not just Patch Tuesday.
Conclusion
The well-known Patch Tuesday is essential for the proper functioning and security of the Windows operating system and the set of installed applications.
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