Microsoft may be fixing a big problem with Windows update

A new update for Windows 11 and Windows 10 may help to address some longstanding Windows Update problems.

Windows 10 and Windows 11 have just gotten an update that changes how Windows Update works, and it could be something that addresses a longstanding problem with updating Windows: updates failing to install. You’ve probably had that issue before where you go try and install an update but for some inexplicable reason, the update fails, and there’s not much you can do about it other than try again. However, that could be changing.

According to Microsoft, the update KB4023057 does the following, “On Windows consumer devices, this update helps remediate smooth functioning of Windows Update.” Of course, that’s pretty vague, but ‘remediate smooth functioning’ is a pretty interesting line that likely refers to solving previously known issues with Windows Update that make the experience of using it not so smooth, and updates failing to install is a pretty well-known problem.

Even if this update doesn’t actually force updates to install without issue, we’d certainly like to see more than a vague error message that doesn’t contain any useful information pop up when updates do fail. However, it’s also important to remember that updates can fail to install for a wide variety of different reasons, so there may not be an easy fix when your particular update for your unique system doesn’t work as expected.

Ultimately, though, it’s still unclear what practical effect this update will have on Windows Update. However, it is a mandatory update, so you will have to install it and find out for yourself eventually. When you’re up-to-date, make sure to keep an eye out on Windows Update to see if you notice it failing to install updates any less or if, in general, Windows Update seems like it’s functioning more smoothly.

As you might expect, this update, like most other updates, will be available through the traditional Windows Update system on Windows.