Are your enterprise Windows endpoints enrolled in Microsoft Intune? If so, it may be beneficial to start managing Windows updates through Intune. In this multi part blog post, you’ll discover how you can master Windows updates using Intune and ensure your endpoints are always-up-to-date, secure, and seamlessly integrated to minimize disruption and maximize convenience for your end users.
Update Rings
The first thing you should do is setup your update rings. Update rings are an important starting point to manage windows updates.
- Manage update behavior and install timelines.
- Set update deadlines and grace periods.
- Uninstall / rollback quality and feature updates.
Your update rings will vary depending on your enviroment, however I have an example of a good starting point below. In this scenario, we have a small environment with only about 500 Windows endpoints.
Above, I have 3 Entra ID security groups configured that contain endpoints. Then, I have 3 update ring policies setup that are applied to those groups.
In a more complex enviroment, you’ll likely have this configured to match the enviroment. For example, you may want to apply updates to non mission critical endpoints first, and then apply them to mission critical endpoints after they’ve been heavily tested.
Microsoft delivers Windows updates on the second Tuesday of every month, also known as patch Tuesday. In the example above, I apply updates to my Alpha and Beta group on Wednesday, and then my production group on Thursday. This allows a couple of days for issues to be reported before the updates are applied to my production group.
Stay tuned for future blog posts, where I’ll cover configuring Feature updates, Quality updates, and driver update policies, as well as monitoring the update status on all of your endpoints.
For more information, here are some helpful resources on Microsoft Learn.
Configure Update rings for Windows 10 and later policy in Intune | Microsoft Learn
Windows Update settings you can manage with Intune Update Ring policies for Windows 10/11 devices. | Microsoft Learn
