Microsoft's Unified Update Platform to Reduce Windows 10 Update Size by Up to 35 Percent

Microsoft's Windows 10 updates take forever to install, especially on PC, and the company is now finally taking measures to resolve that pain point. With the Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft plans to introduce something called 'Unified Update Platform'(UUP) that should make updates faster to install.

UUP aims to reduce the download size of updates on PCs by 35 percent. This is done by enabling differential download packaging that contains only the changes that are arriving with the new build, eliminating bloat. For Windows 10 Mobile users, UUP will reduce the data sent to the devices, as well as decrease the amount of processing it is doing on devices.

"One of the biggest community and customer benefits of UUP is the reduction you'll see in download size on PCs. We have converged technologies in our build and publishing systems to enable differential downloads for all devices built on the Mobile and PC OS. A differential download package contains only the changes that have been made since the last time you updated your device, rather than a full build. As we rollout UUP, this will eventually be impactful for PCs where users can expect their download size to decrease by approximately 35 percent when going from one major update of Windows to another. We're working on this now with the goal of supporting this for feature updates after the Windows 10 Creators Update; Insiders will see this sooner," Bill Karagounis, Director of Program Management, Windows Insider Program said in a statement.

UUP also introduces a 'one-hop' update for Windows 10 Mobile users that allows them to update to the latest build, regardless of how old an update they are running their device on. Currently, users have to update multiple times to get to the latest build. This 'one-hop' feature is already active for PC users.

This new platform is arriving first for Windows Insider Members only, and will be rolled out commercially to all users with the Windows 10 Creators Update. UUP for Insider members will first arrive for Windows 10 Mobile users only, and PC users should get it before the year ends. Shortly after, IoT and Hololens devices will also get the UUP feature update.