If we had to highlight one of the many weaknesses that affects the entire Windows ecosystem, it is Windows Update. The platform that is supposed to keep our operating systems updated and protected has become the target of millions of frustrated users due to the technical problems it causes. Microsoft's new strategy is to expand the mechanics of cumulative updates, which in theory will help alleviate fragmentation issues. On the other hand, it is already being calculated that the hotfixes will be gigantic...
A Broken Update System
All Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users know that something is wrong with Windows Update. They know it in their gut. The cursed mechanism can get stuck for hours with the message "checking for updates", and when the user is about to throw in the towel, Windows Update spits out all the hotfixes at once. Some have decided to "escape" to Windows 10, with the idea that Microsoft purposely broke Windows Update (at this point, I must say I share the idea) to increase the adoption rates of the new operating system. However, the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence. Mandatory updates and poor quality control knocked out thousands of computers around the globe, but now another problem is on the horizon: the size of the hotfixes.
The Cumulative Update Problem
As Microsoft indicates, updates are cumulative. Therefore, each new patch contains all the fixes from the hotfix it replaces, and the one before, and the one before... and so on. This puts the user in a rather strange situation, with updates that can increase their size by more than 100 percent in the span of a month. The cumulative patch for Windows 10 1607 64-bit hovered around 110-120 MB in August, while in October, the replacement hotfix with designation KB3194798 stood at the edge of 800 megabytes. Of course, Windows Update has resources to avoid the user having to download the entire package each time, and the more responsible the user is with updates, the smaller the data volume. Still, out there we find users with very humble broadband connections, or those who directly have limited connectivity packages.
Windows 7 and 8.1 Follow Suit
To this we must add the fact that Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 will adopt a similar strategy. In recent days, several "rollups" have been seen ranging from a few megabytes to almost 200. The famous "Convenience Rollup" that Microsoft published in May and that unofficially became the Service Pack 2 for Windows 7 weighs almost 500 megabytes in its x64 version, and these "monthly blocks" will get bigger. Now, if Microsoft were consistent with the quality of its patches, the changes in size would be tolerable, but if a mandatory one-gigabyte hotfix leaves me without a system, Troy will burn...
