KB2885694
DAMIEN SOLODOW
Systems Engineer
317.447.6033 (office)
317.447.6014 (fax)
HARRISON COLLEGE
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Kennedy, Jim
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2014 10:21 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [NTSysADM] WSUS and 8/8.1
I'm late to the game on this one. Didn't have a lot of 8/8.1 out there. But I
recall moaning about changes in wsus/gpo's on updates for 8 and 8.1. Really, I
have been googling all morning on it.
I just want it the way it was for 7 and below. I approve the updates, my
desktops download them and the user is presented with Update and Shutdown at
the end of the day. Right now all they get is Update are Restart.
Not finding anything on it.
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On computers running the RTM release of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012,
Windows Update no longer defined when to install updates. Instead, Automatic
Maintenance is used for that purpose, minimizing activity during active
computer use. Windows Update on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 computers
also has new restart logic that defaults to forcing a restart 3 days after the
installation of updates instead of 15 minutes. To avoid unintended data loss,
forced restarts also no longer occur if a user is not actively using the
machine, able to see the restart notice, and save their work.
While these changes have proven to be beneficial to many end users, the lack of
discrete control over Windows Update installations and system restarts
disrupted some management scenarios. This update returns the ability to
discretely control when Windows Update installs updates, and adds the
capability to force a restart soon after those installations regardless of
whether there might be an active user session.
Microsoft has updated the documentation to more fully explain how you can use
these new group policy settings. This documentation is available here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2885694
KB2885694, included in update rollup KB2883201, is available today (October
8th, 2013) on Windows Update and the Microsoft Update Catalog, and will be
available soon on WSUS. We believe that this update will result in
significantly improved uptime, reliability, and manageability; we hope you’ll
agree.
In order for the below changes to take effect, this update must be installed on
all client computers receiving the desired configuration. It should also be
installed on the computers configuring the policy to expose the new and updated
group policies.
Finally, these updates are already included in the final versions of Windows
8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2, so if you are already planning to upgrade,
there aren’t any additional updates you need to install.
Thank you for sharing your feedback with Microsoft!
The Windows Update and WSUS teams
Changes introduced by this update
KB 2885694 introduces two main changes that define how Windows Update on
Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 computers can be configured using group
policy. All policies mentioned are located at this path:
Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components /
Windows Update
When enabled with a value of 4…
The Configure Automatic Updates group policy works identically to the Windows 7
/ Windows Server 2008 R2 and earlier behavior.
On Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 without KB 2885694 installed, that policy
could configure the main automatic updating setting, but configuring the
scheduled install day and time had no effect. After installing KB 2885694, the
policy will enable you to configure machines to:
* Install updates during automatic maintenance, the default behavior, or
* Install updates at the scheduled day and time defined in the policy
A new group policy called Always automatically restart at the scheduled time
enables restarts soon after updates are installed, instead of 3 days later
By default in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, if the installation of
important updates requires a system restart, one will be forced 3 days after
their installation. The restart timer begins counting down only when a user is
able to see it, helping prevent unintentional data loss in the middle of the
night. More details about this default behavior are discussed in this blog
post<http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/11/14/minimizing-restarts-after-automatic-updating-in-windows-update.aspx>.
If you would instead like to force restarts following update installation,
similar to Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2 and earlier, you can enable the
new “Always automatically restart…” policy. When the policy is enabled, a
restart timer will always begin immediately after Windows Update installs
important updates, instead of multiple days later.
The restart timer cannot be postponed once started, but the policy lets you
configure the countdown timer to any value between 15 and 180 minutes. When the
timer runs out, the restart will proceed even if the machine has signed-in
users.
Note: If the group policy No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled
automatic updates installations is enabled, then the new “Always automatically
restart…” policy has no effect.
Note: In Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, the Delay Restart for scheduled
installations continues to have no effect.
Example configurations
Scenario
Recommended configuration
Force updates and restarts at a specific time. For example:
* Install updates on Friday nights at 11PM
* Force a restart soon after installation
Use the Configure Automatic Updates policy:
* Enable the policy
* Use option #4 – Auto download and schedule the install
* Deselect “Install during automatic maintenance”
* Set “6 – Every Friday” for the scheduled install day
* Set “23:00” for the scheduled install time
Use the Always automatically restart at the scheduled time policy:
* Enable the policy
* Configure the timer to the desired value (default is 15 minutes)
Stagger installs and restarts across different hours and days on different
machines.
Start with the same configuration as the above scenario.
Set different scheduled install days and times for different groups which you
don’t want rebooting at the same time.
Force updates at a specific day and time, but preserve the default Windows 8
restart behavior
Start with the same configuration as the above scenarios, but do not enable the
Always automatically restart at the scheduled time policy.
This post was written by Jordan Cohen on behalf of the Windows Update team.
<http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3600941>
View
article...<http://blogs.technet.com/b/wsus/archive/2013/10/08/enabling-a-more-predictable-windows-update-experience-for-windows-8-and-windows-server-2012-kb-2885694.aspx>
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