Microsoft wants all app & driver updates to go through Windows Update

When it comes to phones, most software is updated through a unified process. With an iPhone, you get all your operating system updates from Apple and all your individual app updates from the App Store. Android phones are similar, if slightly more fragmented. Now what if Windows worked in the same way, centralizing all your software needs and updating everything in one spot? Microsoft wants that.

Microsoft product manager Angie Chen announced the new Windows Update orchestration platform (a classic Microsoft name if ever I heard one) via the IT Pro blog. There’s a lot of technical jargon on the page, but it boils down to this: developers will be able to join the platform to deliver software updates for just about anything from within Windows—from the tiniest programs to the most crucial drivers to giant packages like Adobe Creative Suite—all going through Windows Update.

Users would obviously benefit from a more seamless and streamlined update system, one that’s (again) very much inspired by the way mobile operating systems work. Developers would be able to more reliably deliver updates without having to wait for users to launch their apps locally and check with a ping (or make yet another annoying “launch with Windows” thingy gobbling up your RAM in the taskbar). Microsoft’s orchestrator system will scan the updates for safety and distribute them, installing them at an ideal time when the user’s system isn’t under load. Other benefits include a unified update log, centralized update notifications, and “automatic future enhancements.”

It isn’t perfect, as you might expect given Microsoft’s previous attempts to unify software systems like the Microsoft Store. There’s already a contingency in place for apps that really do require a full system reboot before launching again after updating, which frankly sounds exhausting. But I’m someone who’s mostly been handling my own downloads for 30+ years, so I may not be entirely neutral here. Notably, there’s no indication in the blog post that conventional software downloads and isolated updates will be phased out.

The program is in the extreme early stages right now, as there’s not even a dedicated page for the onboarding process. If you’re a developer and you want in, you’ll need to reach out via email to unifiedorchestrator@service.microsoft.com.