Microsoft is developing a cloud-based Windows update rollback

Windows updates are not always functioning properly, and in a lot of devices that might cause more harm, than good. For example, a recent build, KB5028254, released earlier this year, caused Windows 11’s Start menu to crash when opened, due to its conflicts with third-party apps.

As much as we’d love to celebrate each Windows package, some of them are detrimental to some devices and run into all sorts of issues. Sometimes, the best solution is to restart or look out for a Windows Report guide on your specific issue, and sometimes it’s best to wait for official solutions.

However, it seems that Microsoft might offer a more straightforward solution soon, according to a patent filed by the company recently. The solution consists of a technology that will automatically restore Windows (or any other operating system) to a point in the past when it was fully and properly functioning. The patent calls this point a last known good update event.

Windows already has a similar restore point, and users can easily return to it if the image of the restore point is backed up in the device’s storage drives. But what sets this technology apart is the fact the restore point makes use of cloud-stored information to roll back to a previously functional OS.

A cloud-based Windows update rollback: How would it work?

The technology centers around a system that improves user experience when there’s a problem by returning resources that provide a service to a “last known good” upgrade. This means the resources are reconfigured to go back from recent upgrades, which likely caused the problem, to a previous upgrade that didn’t affect the user experience much or at all.

The techniques disclosed herein improve the user experience in the face of a regression by returning resources that offer a service to a last known good upgrade.

The system collects performance data from different computers that are part of a cloud-based platform to identify the problem that is causing the crash of the operating system. This data is collected for each upgrade event in a series of upgrade events that are currently deployed or being deployed.

The system then continually tracks and analyzes qualification data collected for each of the deployed upgrade events. It will also mark an upgrade event as the last known good upgrade event when the collected qualification data meets predefined qualifications.

Think about it this way: every time Windows 11 receives a new build, this system collects data from it. The data is then filtered through a set of qualifications, and if everything is good, the system would mark the new Windows 11 build as a last known good upgrade.

From there, every time your device crashes when installing a new Windows 11 build, the system automatically rolls it back to the last known good upgrade.

This would be entirely cloud-based, as these last known good upgrades are being stored on cloud-based platforms. Users wouldn’t have to worry about not storing backup images on hard drives.

The patent can be read in its entirety here.

What do you think about this technology?