Windows 7 and 8.1 switch to cumulative update model

Microsoft announced Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1 will move to a cumulative update model in October 2016, just like the one offered by the newer Windows 10. This means that Microsoft will release a singly Monthly Rollup, a package that address both security issues and reliability issues. Each month's rollup will supersede the previous month's rollup, and will contain all patches from previous rollups.

Patches that were released in the past will also be added to the Monthly Rollup, but the software giant says this will take a bit of time. Once this work is completed, a fresh install of Windows will become quite a bit easier as you will only need to install a single rollup to get your system up to date.

From October 2016 onwards, Windows will release a single Monthly Rollup that addresses both security issues and reliability issues in a single update. The Monthly Rollup will be published to Windows Update (WU), WSUS, SCCM, and the Microsoft Update Catalog. Each month’s rollup will supersede the previous month’s rollup, so there will always be only one update required for your Windows PCs to get current. i.e. a Monthly Rollup in October 2016 will include all updates for October, while November 2016 will include October and November updates, and so on. Devices that have this rollup installed from Windows Update or WSUS will utilize express packages, keeping the monthly download size small.

Over time, Windows will also proactively add patches to the Monthly Rollup that have been released in the past. Our goal is eventually to include all of the patches we have shipped in the past since the last baseline, so that the Monthly Rollup becomes fully cumulative and you need only to install the latest single rollup to be up to date. We encourage you to move to the Monthly Rollup model to improve reliability and quality of updating all versions of Windows.

We are planning to add these previously shipped patches over the next year and will document each addition so IT admins know which KBs have been included each month.

Another change is that from October 2016 onwards, Microsoft will no longer distribute individual security updates, they will all be bundled together in a single security-only update:

Also from October 2016 onwards, Windows will release a single Security-only update. This update collects all of the security patches for that month into a single update. Unlike the Monthly Rollup, the Security-only update will only include new security patches that are released for that month. Individual patches will no longer be available. The Security-only update will be available to download and deploy from WSUS, SCCM, and the Microsoft Update Catalog. Windows Update will publish only the Monthly Rollup – the Security-only update will not be published to Windows Update. The security-only update will allow enterprises to download as small of an update as possible while still maintaining more secure devices.