Microsoft has dismissed reports about June 14 being the last Patch Tuesday, as the upcoming rollout of the Windows Autopatch service seems to be causing some confusion.
In April, Microsoft unveiled Windows Autopatch, an automatic update service for some Windows 10 and 11 enterprise customers. The service, designed to make it easier for administrators to manage and roll out updates for Windows and Microsoft 365 apps, aims to make Patch Tuesday “just another Tuesday” for enterprises, Microsoft representatives said at the time.
Windows Autopatch is currently in public preview and is set to become generally available in early July 2022 for Microsoft customers that have a Windows Enterprise E3 license or greater. Admins will be able to continue using their current tools and processes for deploying updates, or they can let the Autopatch service do it for them.
However, several major cybersecurity companies and prominent security news publications caused confusion this week when they reported that June 14 was the final Patch Tuesday, describing it as “the last ever Patch Tuesday,” “the end of Patch Tuesday” and “the end of an era.”
That is not accurate. The rollout of Windows Autopatch does not mean there will no longer be Patch Tuesday updates.
Microsoft told SecurityWeek that the company will continue releasing security updates on the second Tuesday of the month. Windows Autopatch is an opt-in service for some enterprise customers, but there will not be any changes for everyone else.
Senior-level sources from within Microsoft also confirmed for SecurityWeek that the public reports about the end of Patch Tuesday are false.
Even Microsoft’s public documentation on Windows Autopatch notes that the new service does not affect Patch Tuesday.
The confusion could also partly stem from the fact that for organizations using Windows Autopatch there will be a default release schedule for updates, but patches addressing critical vulnerabilities will be expedited in an effort to immediately protect devices.
Related: Windows Updates Patch Actively Exploited ‘Follina’ Vulnerability
Related: Patch Tuesday: Microsoft Warns of New Zero-Day Being Exploited
Related: Microsoft Patches 128 Windows Flaws, New Zero-Day Reported by NSA
Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
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