In a significant advancement for IT management, Windows Server 2025 is set to introduce ‘Hotpatching,’ a feature that allows critical patches to be installed without necessitating a restart of the endpoint. This announcement was made by Hari Pulapaka, the Director of Product for Windows Server, in a recent post on the Windows blog.
Enhanced Efficiency and Security
Hotpatching promises to streamline the patch deployment process, enabling faster updates while minimizing resource consumption. The reduction in mandatory reboots is particularly noteworthy; instead of the traditional twelve reboots each year on ‘Patch Tuesday,’ users will now experience only quarterly scheduled reboots, with the occasional reboot required during a nominal Hotpatch month. This shift not only alleviates the workload impact on IT teams but also enhances overall security.
The feature will be accessible through Azure Arc, facilitating management and allowing the internal licensing service for Hotpatch to operate effectively. As Pulapaka emphasized, “When Windows Server 2025 becomes generally available, you will be able to run the edition you want, where you want – whether on-prem, in Azure, or elsewhere.”
Flexibility Across Platforms
Organizations will have the flexibility to hotpatch both physical servers and virtual machines running on various platforms, including Hyper-V and VMware, as long as they adhere to Microsoft’s Virtualization Based Security standard. This versatility is expected to cater to a wide range of deployment scenarios, enhancing operational efficiency.
For those eager to explore the Hotpatching feature on their Windows Server 2025 Datacenter and Standard edition evaluation machines, activation is straightforward. Users need to enable the service via the built-in Azure Arc agent setup, ensure they are running the Windows Server 2025 Datacenter evaluation, have the KB5040435 July Security update installed, and maintain a connection to Azure Arc.
