Examining the renewed update history feature for Windows 10

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Published onFebruary 10, 2016

published onFebruary 10, 2016

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As we reported yesterday, Microsoftissuedbuild 10586.104 for Windows 10 desktops. Alongside that update came a new feature heavily demanded by the populace since Windows 10 controversially started omitting them:update logs.

I find it a bit disingenuous to call it a “new” feature. It’s more like “bringing back what we once had”, though it seems to come in a simpler form. In the Update & Security section of the Settings app, in the Windows Update subsection:

Doing so redirects you to theWindows 10 update history webpage, chronologically detailing every update since this page apparently began today. Obnoxiously absent from the chronology are the logs from any of the previous updates, which leads me to suspect Microsoft never bothered charting information about previous updates. Nevertheless, I find this to be yet another piece of invigorating evidence that Microsoft listens to our feedback (however misguided the company’s initial strategy seem to have been).

Even better, at the bottom of each entry is a link to the specific security ramifications of each update, which includes methods on how to get the update, prerequisites for the update, what the given update supersedes, file hash information, and a CSV file detailing all the files affected by this update.

Of particular interest is the subsection detailing the methods on how to get the update, where it lists, in addition to the default Windows Update method, a link to the Windows Update Catalog, which grants you access to standalone manual installer packages.

In typical bizarrely non-linear Microsoft fashion, the Update Catalog requires the use of Internet Explorer specifically. Microsoft Edge, Windows 10’s vaunted successor for Internet Explorer, does not work with this website, nor does Google Chrome. Worse yet, accessing this website through Internet Explorer 11 requires the installation of an ActiveX control called Microsoft Update Catalog, a plug-in of which seems to have been signed back in 2013. Installing it grants you access to a website that looks like a remnant of the Silverlight era.

You then have to add your desired update packages to something of a shopping cart, and then checkout, which downloads the package not through Internet Explorer’s file download utility itself, but through an primitive download manager hosted by the ActiveX control itself, one that’s unable to replace existing files of the same name, and that requires your permission through User Account Control.

Nonsense aside, at the bottom of the update history page is an invitation to join the insider program, where all new features are tested before being baked into general release builds.

All told, the update history page is a welcome and easily accessible addition to Windows 10’s ever growing bag of tricks and a good sign that Microsoft takes its customers’ security concerns seriously.

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time).

For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web.

Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they’re looking for.

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Radu Tyrsina

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Examining the renewed update history feature for Windows 10#

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Examining the renewed update history feature for Windows 10