Reboot-free hot patching coming to non-cloud instances of Windows Server

Greedy patching: Hot patching is a way to quickly install security updates without requiring an OS reboot. Microsoft has offered the feature for years through its Azure cloud platform, but it's soon coming to non-cloud versions of Windows Server. It won't be free, but Microsoft's target audience is enterprise customers.

Microsoft says hot patching works by modifying the code of active processes in memory, avoiding the need to restart them. The service, which entered preview in 2024, will become generally available for Windows Server 2025 starting July 1. However, it will require a monthly subscription, priced at $1.50 per CPU core.

Hot patching has been available for years in the Windows Server Datacenter edition. Microsoft says the Xbox team used it to shrink maintenance windows from weeks to days. While the feature enables smaller, faster update packages, customers will still need to reboot systems four times ...