Ever thought Windows 11's updates were confusingly named? Microsoft is fixing this

Microsoft wants to make Windows 11 updates easier to understand, and has a new naming scheme to help cut through some of the confusion that can be caused by convoluted names.

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Examples of the new updates being applied in Windows 11 (Image Credit: Microsoft)

Windows Central noticed a new support document from Microsoft explaining the change to Windows Update. The idea is to introduce "more intuitive and consistent" naming practices that are more focused on the core aspects of each update, and therefore easier to understand.

• Read more: Windows 12 probably won't be coming out for another year, as Windows 11 version 25H2 announced
• Read more: Microsoft shows how much faster Windows 11 24H2 updates are - nearly 50% quicker, in fact
• Read more: Microsoft rolls out Windows 11 25H2, contains 'significant advancements'

For example, the cumulative update provided every month for Windows 11 will be known as a "monthly security update" and optional releases (coming at the end of the month) will be called "monthly preview non-security updates".

The details of these updates will simply contain the patch's support reference (KB, meaning knowledge base - Microsoft's huge library of support documents) and version (build) number.

In other words, Microsoft has stripped away a bunch of extra info that isn't really necessary, like the Windows version (25H2, 24H2, etc) and architecture details (x64-based systems) in the names. Let's face it, all these additional bits do is clutter up Windows Update (particularly the Update History panel, which is quite messy with all these sprawling names).

The change applies to the following types of updates:

• Windows OS quality updates (monthly security and non-security preview updates - and also out-of-band security updates)
• .NET Framework updates
• Driver updates
• AI component updates
• Visual Studio updates

What the new plan doesn't apply to, though, is feature updates, so the deployment of Microsoft's big annual upgrades will remain the same (version 25H2 and so on - though if rumors are right, we might just get a 26H1, for Arm PCs only, next year, followed by a version 26H2 with the same changes for all Windows 11 devices).

I'd like to see some simplified new names for some of the less welcome updates that Windows 11 users can encounter. Like the "surprise update" which reboots your PC without any warning, interrupting an inevitably vital task you were right in the middle of on your work laptop. Or maybe the "vexed and hexed update" where Windows 11 fails to install the upgrade (often repeatedly), spewing out a meaningless hexadecimal error like '0x800f0983' which is always fun to see.

Or even the "haven't I seen this before update" which you could swear was already sent through and installed on your PC, earlier this year or last, but is now somehow turning up on your machine again.

What might be really handy when it comes to cutting through the confusion with updates is explaining why one is appearing again on your system, or better still, a bit more of a clue as to what went wrong with an installation failure than that irritating error code. We can but dream, although in the future, it's a fair bet that Microsoft will be getting AI in on the act here - probably using Mico's chirpy presence to soothe your frayed nerves after a misfired update installation.