"But are things getting worse? According to Register readers, and the company's own release health dashboard, the answer has to be yes. It isn't just you. The frequency of emergency out-of-band releases for the company's operating systems has been rapidly increasing to the point where, for every Patch Tuesday update, there'll likely be at least one out-of-band patch to fix whatever got broken."
"To be fair to Microsoft, it is also more than capable of emitting out-of-band releases when it finds things have been broken that were not part of the Patch Tuesday cadence. Microsoft states that out-of-band releases "are used in atypical cases, such as security vulnerabilities or a quality issue, when devices should be updated immediately instead of waiting for the next monthly quality update release." We asked Microsoft Copilot what "atypical" meant. It responded:"
"As opposed to "something that seems to be happening quite a lot lately." In April 2025, Windows Server 2022 got an out-of-band update. It was soon joined by Windows Server 2025. May last year was a busy month for the Microsoft bork fairy as multiple out-of-band updates were released for the company's desktop as well as its server products, and so it goes on."
Microsoft has produced an increasing number of emergency out-of-band updates following Patch Tuesday releases, unsettling administrators. Register readers and the company's release health dashboard indicate the frequency of such releases is rising. Microsoft states that out-of-band releases are intended for atypical cases like security vulnerabilities or quality issues requiring immediate fixes. Microsoft Copilot defines 'atypical' as unusual, irregular, or out of the ordinary. Multiple server and desktop products received out-of-band updates in 2025, including Windows Server 2022 and Server 2025. Windows 10 continues to receive out-of-band fixes despite the end of free support and availability of Extended Security Updates.
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