Windows Updates on Laptops

[Fizzz]

How do you handle Windows updates on laptops that are kept in charging trolleys?The laptops are used intermittently throughout each day. But we can't afford to have students waiting for Windows Updates to install when they get switched on.

 

I have figured out how to wake the laptops up overnight to install updates, but I can only do that if the laptop is in sleep or hibernate. So the first problem is how to ensure that the laptop is not actually shut down but it is put to sleep or hibernated.I can config the lid close and physical power button to hibernate the laptop. But users can still select shut down from in Windows.

 

So I remove all the power options from windows. But that doesn't sign the user out. So if the user just closes the lid or presses the power button without actually signing out, they will still be signed in when the next user arrives. And because I have removed the power options, they can't even restart the laptop to sign the previous user out.

 

I would love an option to "sign out and hibernate" rather than shut down, but that option doesn't seem to be possible.

 

Any ideas or am I missing a trick somewhere? Thanks for any help.

[FN-GM]

I thought waiting for them to boot whilst installing updates is a thing of the past? With SDD and modern version of Windows 10 it adds a few seconds to boot, even for major release updates. What is the device spec and what build of Windows do you use?

[mavhc]

Shutdown on Windows 10 is sign out and hibernate, unless you change it

[DavR]

We set auto download and schedule the install, and specify a deadline in GP. This forces the updates to install in the background during normal use, within a few days of becoming available.

 

We've then got the automatic reboots turned off, with active hours set 7am-7pm. Then finally we've got reboot notifications turned off, just on the laptop trolley OU.

 

In this way, the laptops take their updates in the background during business hours, but don't bug the user for a reboot, as the device will be shutdown and restarted in the normal course of events (we don't use sleep or hibernate, closing the laptop lid will cause a full shutdown). I know some people prefer to wake devices from sleep during a maintenance window, but always felt like too much faff for me, and I've never been a fan of sleep or hibernate.

 

I've not had any complaints about Windows update slowing down start ups, as most of it happens during shutdown, and our laptops are usually up to date in WSUS.

[jthompson]

If the laptops are slow at installing the monthly CUs, then one mitigation would be to book the trolley(s) out for a maintenance window in the days following patch Tuesday, so give them all a run at getting the latest CUs completed.

 

We tend to find that faster laptops and/or laptops that get more frequent use are able to keep on top of their updates pretty well just in the background, without any admin attention or much T&L impact.

[sigma]

We set auto download and schedule the install, and specify a deadline in GP. This forces the updates to install in the background during normal use, within a few days of becoming available.

 

We've then got the automatic reboots turned off, with active hours set 7am-7pm. Then finally we've got reboot notifications turned off, just on the laptop trolley OU.

 

In this way, the laptops take their updates in the background during business hours, but don't bug the user for a reboot, as the device will be shutdown and restarted in the normal course of events (we don't use sleep or hibernate, closing the laptop lid will cause a full shutdown). I know some people prefer to wake devices from sleep during a maintenance window, but always felt like too much faff for me, and I've never been a fan of sleep or hibernate.

 

I've not had any complaints about Windows update slowing down start ups, as most of it happens during shutdown, and our laptops are usually up to date in WSUS.

 

Similar here, except I delay most updates until the beginning of the next calendar month (Microsoft don't pay me to Beta test), then target my test devices and only after they have successfully installed do they go to the more critical devices. I sometimes single thread updates to laptops that require a reboot. Obviously truely urgent updates go out pronto.

[Oaktech]

Our slow ones have a monthly maintenance window which is me starrting them all up, running updates and shutting them down again. Our fast ones do it fast enough that nobody complains.

[Fizzz]

Thanks for all the responses and ideas. We have quite a mix of laptops, the newest are a couple of years old and some quite a bit older than that. They all do have SSD drives but we have found the older ones are very slow to install updates after you restart the machine. Which I why I wanted to wake them up automatically.I have found that we can only wake windows 10 from sleep or hibernate, but never been able to from shut down, (even though this is supposed to hibernate if fast startup is enabled).I'll try some of the ideas suggested here. Thanks again.

[DrCheese]

I converted our slow (Read: el cheapo DFE laptops) to ChromeOS to get around this - We ran them on Windows 11 for a while but the updating just killed them.

 

ChromeOS just updates a separate partition in the background then when the device is next rebooted swaps to that - The kids never even notice & my devices are kept up to date.