Redmond offers info on the Unified Update Platform (UUP)

Mar 3, 2017 05:52 GMT  ·  By

One of the most recent changes introduced as part of the Windows Insider program is called the Unified Update Platform (UUP) and is supposed to reduce the size of builds that Microsoft is shipping to testers by only providing the new bits that need to be deployed.

This is an approach similar to cumulative updates for Windows 10 where only the patches that are missing from a computer are shipped to bring it fully up-to-date, and in a post today, the company reveals that UUP could make new builds as small as 1 GB.

Bill Karagounis, Director of Program Management, Windows Insider Program & OS Fundamentals, explains that UUP relies on differential download packages, which contain only the changes that were made to the operating system since the last time you updated your device, so instead of getting a completely new OS image that needs to be downloaded and installed, you’re provided with a custom image that includes only the changes that bring your system up to date.

Microsoft has started rolling out builds to insiders using UUP, and the firm says that engineers expect download size to be reduced by as much as 35 percent from one major update to another.

Retail users won’t see a difference with the Creators Update

As far as users who are not participating in the Windows Insider program are concerned, they’re not going to see a big difference when the Creators Update goes live in April because Windows 10 needs to have the underlying technology to be able to take advantage of UUP and the Anniversary Update uses the old system.

This means that a bigger difference in OS updates will be made when updating from the Creators Update to the next OS release, which is internally codenamed Redstone 3 and is expected to launch in the fall.

“Given the frequency of Insider flights, Insider build update diffs are considerably smaller (<1GB) than what we expect for retail users to experience when going from feature update to feature update,” Microsoft says.

More information on how UUP advances will be provided in the coming weeks, especially given the fact that Microsoft is now finalizing work on the Creators Update and all users, including those who are not part of the Insider program, are projected to receive the new update system.