Windows 10, initially promised as “the last version of Windows,” was released back in 2015. It was subsequently succeeded by Windows 11 several years later, and now mainstream support is set to end in October 2025. Microsoft has mostly just released bug fixes and minor app updates for Windows 10 over the past few years, but now an improvement for update packaging is rolling out.
Microsoft is bringing a significant under-the-hood improvement introduced in Windows 11 to Windows 10 PCs: decreasing the size of update downloads. Windows 11’s updates are notably more efficient due to optimized packaging, including the elimination of reverse differentials from cumulative update packages. Now, this optimization is being extended to Windows 10, version 22H2, with the release of the April 23, 2024 (KB5036979) update. Starting from this update, you can expect a significant reduction in update package size, from approximately 830 MB to around 650 MB, facilitating smoother updates and conserving network bandwidth. This applies for both the current update and any updates that might land on your PC in the future.
The benefits of this reduction include decreased bandwidth consumption, faster downloads, minimized network congestion, and improved performance, particularly for users with slower connections. The difference is just a few megabytes, but it’s an important one nonetheless. Right now, most computers still running Windows 10 (that aren’t purposely avoiding the bigger update) are probably lower-resource ones that are not eligible for Windows 11. As those computers age, then, every saved megabyte will matter.
Other than this, the newest update to Windows 11 only carries a few bug fixes and stability improvements. As previously mentioned, it’s an operating system that’s about to reach the end of its lifespan, so Microsoft isn’t really going to add a lot of new, exciting stuff to it. Microsoft recently rolled out the Copilot sidebar to Windows 10, but there haven’t been many other changes since development shifted to Windows 11.
The reduced update size is probably as exciting of an improvement to Windows 10 as we’ll get at this point. Make sure to download it and install it now.
