Microsoft recently elaborated upon how it utilized technology in order to reduce the latest Windows 11 update size by a whopping 40%.
You know what's annoying? Updates. They take hours, precious time that can be used working, pursuing personal interests, or watching YouTube videos. While many of them take around 20 minutes worth of one's time, and add features that could be considered vestigial at best, there are others that pack a larger, heavier punch. While typically what that means is that users have more new features to explore and work with, it also means that the desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile at hand is rendered immobile. Yes, not just useless but immobile, since the device needs to stay connected to a secure Wi-Fi signal in order for the update to go through.
There's also always the constant worry about what'll happen if things go wrong. Updates urge us to not shut the device down mid-update or Lord knows what manner of dysfunction will strike it. Even when updates fully complete without any hitches, they occasionally come with new glitches that users have to find and deal with in chance encounters and the like. Not the best look, overall. However, the first one of all of these problems may be seeing a solution on the horizon.
Microsoft recently made a post on their Tech Community blog regarding how developers managed to reduce the size of a Windows 11 update by an impressive 40%. Just the fact that an entire blog post was dedicated to this means that Microsoft thinks the action to be of some note. The process itself is rather complicated, involving the likes of forward & reverse delta pairs, and reverse update data generation. Let's try a bare bones simplistic way of breaking the whole thing down. Forward and reverse delta pairs are a method of encoding data that Windows updates rely on. They can, however, take up a lot of space. Bidirectional deltas were also implemented, and offered almost no change in file size. However, developers ultimately thought of using reverse update data generation, bypassing the usage of forward and reverse deltas, and reducing file size down by a significant amount.
This bodes well for a big part of the community, especially seeing as not everyone has access to a decent internet connection. Broadband width in the likes of developing regions are limited to a fault, making larger updates all the more grueling. Accidentally starting one is a process that can lead to hours and hours of inaccessible devices. Ultimately, it's a convenience that really helps updates come off as a bit more practical to users.
Read next: Windows 11, The Most Secure and Safe Iteration Of The Generational Operating System
You know what's annoying? Updates. They take hours, precious time that can be used working, pursuing personal interests, or watching YouTube videos. While many of them take around 20 minutes worth of one's time, and add features that could be considered vestigial at best, there are others that pack a larger, heavier punch. While typically what that means is that users have more new features to explore and work with, it also means that the desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile at hand is rendered immobile. Yes, not just useless but immobile, since the device needs to stay connected to a secure Wi-Fi signal in order for the update to go through.
There's also always the constant worry about what'll happen if things go wrong. Updates urge us to not shut the device down mid-update or Lord knows what manner of dysfunction will strike it. Even when updates fully complete without any hitches, they occasionally come with new glitches that users have to find and deal with in chance encounters and the like. Not the best look, overall. However, the first one of all of these problems may be seeing a solution on the horizon.
Microsoft recently made a post on their Tech Community blog regarding how developers managed to reduce the size of a Windows 11 update by an impressive 40%. Just the fact that an entire blog post was dedicated to this means that Microsoft thinks the action to be of some note. The process itself is rather complicated, involving the likes of forward & reverse delta pairs, and reverse update data generation. Let's try a bare bones simplistic way of breaking the whole thing down. Forward and reverse delta pairs are a method of encoding data that Windows updates rely on. They can, however, take up a lot of space. Bidirectional deltas were also implemented, and offered almost no change in file size. However, developers ultimately thought of using reverse update data generation, bypassing the usage of forward and reverse deltas, and reducing file size down by a significant amount.
This bodes well for a big part of the community, especially seeing as not everyone has access to a decent internet connection. Broadband width in the likes of developing regions are limited to a fault, making larger updates all the more grueling. Accidentally starting one is a process that can lead to hours and hours of inaccessible devices. Ultimately, it's a convenience that really helps updates come off as a bit more practical to users.
Read next: Windows 11, The Most Secure and Safe Iteration Of The Generational Operating System