Windows 11 24H2 adds checkpoints to make updates smaller and faster

• Microsoft introduces checkpoint cumulative updates for Windows 11 24H2, Windows Server 2025, and higher releases.
• This new approach makes updates smaller and faster through incremental differentials, saving time, bandwidth, and space.
• The new mechanism will create checkpoints that will serve as baselines for future updates instead of including changes since the original release.

Windows 11 24H2 is introducing a new update mechanism known as “checkpoint cumulative updates” to make it easier and faster for devices to download and install updates with new features and security improvements.

How did Windows updates work in the past?

Traditionally, on Windows 11, updates are cumulative, meaning that they are differential and contain all the changes since a particular version was released to manufacturing (also known as “RTM”). This could lead to large update packages that take a long time to download and install.

How will Windows updates work with checkpoints?

The new checkpoint cumulative update mechanism allows the system to create “checkpoints,” which serve as new baselines for subsequent updates. Instead of including all changes since the RTM release, updates will only contain changes made since the last checkpoint. The new approach will result in smaller update packages faster to download and install on computers.

How often will Microsoft release checkpoint updates?

Starting with the release of Windows 11 24H2, Microsoft will release updates as “checkpoints,” so subsequent updates only contain the incremental changes since the last checkpoint. Although this won’t happen every month, the company plans to release multiple checkpoints throughout the lifecycle of a specific version of the operating system.

According to the company, this new approach will happen automatically without any extra configuration and won’t conflict with existing configurations or tools available to organizations.

Also, this new update mechanism will only apply to Windows 11 24H2 as well as Windows Server 2025 and higher releases. Older versions of Windows 11 or 10 will continue to receive the same cumulative update experience.

How will checkpoints make updates smaller for Windows 11?

As part of the original release of Windows 11, the company introduced a mechanism to make updates smaller by scanning and determining the components that were needed to update a computer. The caveat with this approach was that the process was calculated against the binaries (system files, or, more specifically, the machine code that makes up these files) from the original release of Windows.

Starting on version 24H2, when a new checkpoint is applied to a computer, the system will compute the download for a newer update since the last checkpoint.

In addition to making Windows updates smaller and faster to install on supported computers, this new approach will help the company reduce server resources and bandwidth to deploy cumulative and feature updates.

Microsoft is already testing checkpoints with the release of Windows 11 build 26120.1252 in the Dev Channel.

Alongside checkpoint cumulative updates, Microsoft is also rumored to introduce a new “hot patching” technology that allows applying updates without the need to remove a device, which is something that the company already uses for Windows Server and Xbox consoles.