Microsoft has announced the general availability of hot patch updates for enterprise customers using Windows 11 Enterprise 24H2 on x64 systems. Hotpatching in ARM-based devices running Windows 11 Enterprise is also in the works and currently in public preview.

Hotpatching enables the application of OS security updates in the background, eliminating the need for restarts. This is achieved by patching the in-memory code of running processes, eliminating the downtime associated with traditional updates. The deployment of these updates is controlled through Windows Autopatch policies created in the Microsoft Intune console. Devices managed by these hotpatch-enabled policies will receive hotpatch updates every quarter.

To be eligible for hotpatching, devices must meet specific requirements:

• A Microsoft subscription (Windows 11 Enterprise E3, E5, or F3, Windows 11 Education A3 or A5, or a Windows 365 Enterprise subscription)
• A Windows 11 Enterprise 24H2 PC with the latest baseline update
• An x64 AMD64 or Intel CPU
• Virtualization-based Security (VBS) enabled
• Microsoft Intune for managing hotpatch update distribution

Microsoft notes that hotpatch updates for Arm64 devices are currently in public preview. However, administrators can temporarily disable CHPE support via registry (Path: “HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management”, Dword Key Value: “HotPatchRestrictions=1”) to receive the functionality ahead of the official release. For the remaining eligible devices, hotpatching can be turned on or off within the Microsoft Intune admin center by navigating to Devices > “Windows updates” > “Create Windows quality update policy”.

This technology is not entirely new to the Microsoft ecosystem. Windows Hotpatch capability was initially introduced for Windows Server Azure Edition core virtual machines and later became widely available in February 2022 for systems running Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition. Since then, Microsoft has added hot patching to various preview builds of operating systems but has yet to arrive in the mainstream segment. Hopefully, hot patching will eventually be added to Windows 11 Home and Pro editions.

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KitGuru says: Do you have a system running Windows 11 24H2? Would you like it if it had hotpatch support?

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