“Hotpatching,” the ability to install critical patches without requiring an endpoint reboot, is coming to Windows Server 2025.
The news was confirmed on the Windows Blog late last week, when Windows Server Product Manager Hari Pulapaka announced the feature in preview.
“You asked, and we delivered: Hot patching for Standard and Datacenter edition servers (security updates without reboots) is ready for evaluation in the public preview of Azure Arc-enabled Hotpatch for Windows Server 2025,” the blog post reads. “This feature will be a game changer: simpler change control, shorter patch windows, easier orchestration… and you can finally see your family on the weekends.”
General availability coming soon
Being able to install important updates without having to reboot your device is very important, as patches will be deployed faster and fewer resources will be used. Additionally, fewer reboots also mean less impact on workload and better security.
“Instead of 12 mandatory reboots per year on 'Patch Tuesday', you will now only have quarterly scheduled reboots (with the rare chance that reboots are required in a nominal Hotpatch month),” Pulapaka added.
The feature will be available through Azure Arc, enabling management and allowing the internal Windows Server licensing service for Hotpatch to run and deliver updates to users.
“When Windows Server 2025 is generally available, you'll be able to run any edition you want, wherever you want, whether on-premises, in Azure, or elsewhere,” Pulapaka concluded.
“You'll have the option to apply patches to physical servers or Windows Server 2025 virtual machines, and those virtual machines can run on Hyper-V, VMware, or anywhere else that supports Microsoft's protection-focused virtualization-based security standard.”
Those interested in enabling the Hotpatching feature on their Windows Server 2025 Datacenter and Standard Edition evaluation machines must activate the service through the built-in Azure Arc agent configuration. They must also be running the Windows Server 2025 Datacenter, Virtualization Based Security evaluation, have the July security update KB5040435 installed, and be connected to Azure Arc.