Last week, a major Server upgrade mishap ensued when Microsoft"s Windows 11 KB5044284 update was wrongly pushed out to Windows Server 2019 and Server 2022 systems. One of the third-party AMMs, Heimdal, blamed Microsoft for it.
Later that day, the tech giant did confirm that it had indeed offered the latest Server version as an optional update on Windows Server 2022 and 2019. While nothing was stated at that time, we speculated that the miss-classification of the client OS update as a Server update likely happened due to this.
Today, Microsoft documented the issue on its Windows health dashboard website and has also explained in detail what exactly happened. Going forward, the company has advised that feature updates like these must be interpreted as "optional" and not "recommended":
Windows Server 2025 is intended to be offered as an Optional upgrade in Windows Update settings for devices running Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022. Two scenarios were observed in certain environments:
- Some devices upgraded automatically to Windows Server 2025 (KB5044284). This was observed in environments that use third-party products to manage the update of clients and servers. Please verify whether third-party update software in your environment is configured not to deploy feature updates. This scenario has been mitigated.
- An upgrade to Windows Server 2025 was offered via a message in a banner displayed on the device’s Windows Update page, under Settings. This message is intended for organizations that want to execute an in-place upgrade. This scenario has already been resolved.
The Windows Server 2025 feature update was released as an Optional update under the Upgrade Classification: “DeploymentAction=OptionalInstallation”. Feature update metadata must be interpreted as Optional and not Recommended by patch management tools.
Additionally, Microsoft has also outlined its efforts to prevent such upgrade-related catastrophes in the future. The tech giant says it is actively working with such third-party AMMs and is also adding a new group policy "hold" setting for "Select the target Feature Update version."
The company will also be making changes to how it classifies updates using KB (knowledge base), as there will be separate sites for client and Server updates in the future:
Next steps: Microsoft is working with third-party providers to streamline best practices and recommended procedures. The visibility of the feature update offer banner can be controlled by setting the target version to “hold” in the Group Policy “Select the target Feature Update version”. We will update this documentation in the coming days with additional information about this group policy once it is available.
Note: The Windows Server 2025 feature update was made generally available on November 1, 2024, as KB5044284, which was the same KB number used for Windows 11, version 24H2. This was the KB numbering for both these client and server Windows updates available at that time. Future updates released for Windows Server 2025 and Windows 11, version 24H2 will share the same KB numbers, but will have different release note sites and links.
You can find the issue here on Microsoft"s official Windows health dashboard website.