Patch Tuesday, ‘C release’ updates to continue for Windows 11

Microsoft has confirmed that the upcoming Windows 11 will be serviced on a monthly basis using the same practices the company has honed with Windows 10.

In both a post to the Windows IT Pro blog and refreshed online documentation, Microsoft last week said that it would continue to deliver what it had dubbed “quality updates” at least twice each month.

Security updates, commonly known as “Patch Tuesday” updates, will be issued on the second Tuesday of each month for both Windows 10 and Windows 11. (Microsoft also calls these the month’s “B releases,” because it can and to note their second week’s appearance.)

They will remain cumulative, Microsoft said, continuing the practice of Windows 10 from its 2015 launch to include not only all new security fixes but also all previous security and non-security updates.

The other regular update each month Microsoft calls the “C release,” both because they come after the Patch Tuesday, or B release updates, and because they are typically issued the third week of each month. These optional updates contain previews of all non-security fixes scheduled to be released in final form the following Patch Tuesday as part of the B release.

Microsoft offers the C release update so that IT administrators can, if they wish, test the next month’s upcoming non-security changes before they arrive as part of the mandatory, cumulative B release approximately three weeks later.

There are no “A” or “D” releases in Microsoft’s monthly calendar; although the company once offered a D release, it dropped them some time ago.

More information about each month’s updates can be found on the Windows release health site for Windows 10. Microsoft has said that it will post Windows 11 information on this site as well.