Windows Update for Business Gives Admins Greater Flexibility In Delivering Updates For Windows 10

With all of the great stuff that's been announced for Windows 10 up to this point, it's hard to believe that Microsoft is still dishing it out. For enterprise customers, there's a good reason to be excited for Windows 10: Windows Update has been given an overhaul, and a lot more control.

Announced at the Ignite conference in Chicago, Microsoft's Satya Nadella talked about a much-improved Windows Update mechanism that should come as a big relief to IT staff. In particular, IT will have complete control over how and which updates get rolled out, which for big corporations, could prove to be a boon.

There are four big features tying into this upgrade. For starters, Windows Update can utilize distribution rings, which could see updates push out to a certain set of devices first, to see how things fare, and then push out to the rest after it's deemed safe. Another important feature is adherence to maintenance windows - updates should not occur when other updates or service refreshes are happening.

For businesses that don't have ideal Internet connections, the peer-to-peer delivery feature should be hugely welcomed. With it, it means that only a single computer would need to download the updates, and then it'd spread them to the PCs around it. Finally, these updates all integrate with tools such as System Center and Enterprise Mobility Suite.

These updates could be considered imperative for Microsoft, as it's already going to be challenging to get companies to upgrade to Windows 10. Features like these could sure ease the transition, though.