Updates for Windows 10/11 will now expire and will be removed from the Update Catalog!

[Maxstar]

Microsoft has now started removing older quality updates from the Windows Update server and these removed updates will appear as “expired updates”.


“This KB is no longer available from Windows Update, the Microsoft Update Catalog, or other release channels. We recommend that you update your devices to the latest security quality update. The latest security quality update is cumulative and contains all the addressed issues in this update,” Microsoft noted in an updated document.

Source: Windows 11 & Windows 10 updates will now expire for better performance

 

[britechguy]

I'm actually surprised this hasn't been standard practice.

In the age of Windows As A Service, keeping updates for out of support versions, or even earlier cumulative updates within the same version, doesn't make a lot of sense.

The whole purpose of the cumulative update is to have "everything you may need that you may not have yet applied" in a unitary package. And the "small updates" should be rolled into the cumulative update packages that followed their release.

 

[Digerati]

Yeah, I don't have a problem with this either. As long as there are still cumulative updates available, to get a computer that has, for example, been in storage for a year or two, current, this makes sense.

 

[Will]

This might make it more difficult to fix Windows Update corruptions when they occur - sometimes a very specific file is needed, and helpers often use the WU Catalog to find the specific file version.

 

[Maxstar]

When Microsoft starts removing updates from the catalog, it is more difficult to find files to replace missing or corrupt files on computers with problems?

 

[philc43]

Yes, this will definitely make it more difficult to find the missing/corrupt files for WU repairs. Sometimes it is the specific versions numbers from earlier CUs that are required.

 

[Digerati]

Yes, this will definitely make it more difficult to find the missing/corrupt files for WU repairs.

Perhaps. This just emphasizes the need for a robust backup plan.