Microsoft was closed-mouthed yesterday about why it postponed the month's protection updates, but a patch expert argued that it had been likely caused by one of more concerns together with the company's update support infrastructure, not just one flawed repair.

"Something is broken from the infrastructure, in cheap office professional plus 2016 Update or the Microsoft Update Catalog, is my guess," explained Chris Goettl, solution manager at patch management vendor Ivanti, formerly Shavlik.

Goettl contended that a back-end snafu was by far the most probably lead to for the unprecedented delay, which Microsoft announced yesterday, as a result of other potential leads to manufactured less sense.

Asserting that one update, or one particular part of an update - say just one patch for Windows - had held up the whole month's slate was unreasonable, Goettl advised, given that not just about every correct would be bundled to the Windows updates. Workplace patches, Goettl mentioned, have been delivered separately from people addressing vulnerabilities in Windows, and fixes for World wide web Explorer (IE) were for being spun off this month.

Likewise, an unfinished patch for cheap office professional plus 2013 would not have, on its personal, blocked the release of February's Windows ten update: Even though the two editions have been to get served cumulative updates this month, each and every version would have acquired its very own.

"But Microsoft did not release anything at all, which sounds even more like an infrastructure dilemma," Goettl emphasized inside a follow-up e-mail.

Goettl's take was distinct than most on the Reddit thread, who like Computerworld yesterday, attributed the delay to just one buggy patch. But one particular Reddit commenter posited one more explanation, that a recently-uncovered vulnerability might have triggered the stoppage. "They're delaying the patch to ensure that they are able to involve an additional resolve for a crucial dilemma that was just identified," opined adrientetar.

Others put to use the no-show to consider a jab at Windows' patching track record. "No wonder nothing at all broke this morning," mentioned a single Reddit consumer.

"Rebooted none-the-less, as being a signal of solidarity," added Wilksterman.

The patch postponement again brought focus to Microsoft's selection last yr to dump the decades-old practice of issuing many updates, 1 for each vulnerability, or in lots of cases, associated vulnerabilities, for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. Instead, Microsoft duplicated the cheap office professional plus 2010 model - exactly where only cumulative, unified updates are issued - for your older versions.

Under the previous policy, Microsoft could delay a single patch - when, for instance, that patch had not been completed or thoroughly tested in time - without any impeding the company's skill to release all other fixes. That occurrence, whilst uncommon, was not extraordinary.

But the moment Microsoft started packaging all patches into a single item, it misplaced the power to postpone 1 correct whilst nonetheless releasing other folks. If, in the future, it necessary to delay a patch to get a Windows 7 vulnerability, it could must hold the entire Windows seven cumulative update (even when it could, as Goettl emphasized, release cumulative updates for other versions, along the lines of Windows eight.one or Windows ten).