Hotpatching for Microsoft Windows Server
23-05-2025 14:30Starting May 15, 2026 Microsoft is no longer charging any money for Windows Server hotpatching for servers managed by Azure Arc. Hotpatching is a technology which enables deployment of (security) updates without the need to restart a computer or server. For Windows Server in Azure, this has been around for years. Microsoft now offers this feature for Windows Server 2025 outside of Microsoft Azure. Windows Server 2025 and Azure Arc First, hotpatching outside Azure is only available to the latest version: Windows Server 2025. To enable hotpatching, Windows Server 2025 must be connected to Azure Arc, which is the Azure management option for server environments. By deploying an Azure Arc agent to the server, this server will be ‘visible’ in the Azure Portal where you can enable hotpatching in Azure Update Manager. Autopatch works with physical servers (and eventual virtual machines) on the customers premises, as well as servers in multi-tenant, third party clouds. Login to keep reading >>>