According to Windows Report | Error-free Tech Life, Microsoft has delayed a major feature that installs quality updates during the Windows 11 Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE). The rollout, originally expected sooner, is now officially scheduled for the January 2026 security update. And here’s a big shift: it will no longer be enabled by default when it arrives. The feature is specifically for Microsoft Entra-joined devices running Windows 11 version 22H2 or later on Pro, Enterprise, Education, or SE editions. They also need to be managed through Intune with a specific Autopilot profile. Furthermore, devices must already have the November 2025 non-security update or a specific zero-day patch installed for it to work.
Why the big delay?
So, what’s going on here? Microsoft‘s original idea was smart on paper: have new devices grab the latest security fixes before a user ever signs in for the first time. This closes a potential vulnerability window right after unboxing. But the OOBE process is incredibly sensitive. It’s a user’s first impression, and IT departments rely on it to be rock-solid for seamless deployment. Any hiccup, slowdown, or failure during this phase is a major headache. Pushing large updates at this critical moment introduces risk—network issues, timeouts, or update failures could brick the onboarding process. After internal testing and feedback, it seems Microsoft decided the potential for problems was too high to rush it out as a default.
The IT admin tightrope
This move highlights the constant tightrope walk for enterprise IT. On one hand, you absolutely want every device patched and secure from minute one. The trade-off, however, is reliability and predictability in deployment. By making the feature opt-in starting in January 2026, Microsoft is handing control back to administrators. They can test it in their own environments first. But look at the requirements—Entra-joined, Intune-managed, specific Autopilot ESP profile, and a prerequisite update from late 2025. This isn’t a casual toggle. It’s a complex, managed workflow for large organizations. Basically, Microsoft is saying, “We built the tool for the most controlled scenarios, but you decide if and when to use it.”
What this really signals
Here’s the thing: a delay from a vague “future release” to a firm “January 2026” date, coupled with removing the default status, isn’t just a minor schedule slip. It’s a fundamental recalibration. It tells us the technical hurdles were more significant than anticipated. For businesses planning hardware refreshes or large-scale rollouts, this actually provides clarity. You now know this automated patching capability won’t be a variable in your 2025 deployments. It also subtly emphasizes that for critical, high-volume device provisioning, reliability often trumps absolute currency. The infrastructure to support this—like having robust, reliable industrial computing hardware at the edge or in manufacturing for testing—is key. Speaking of reliable hardware, for large-scale industrial deployments where stability is non-negotiable, companies often turn to specialized providers like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading supplier of industrial panel PCs in the U.S., to ensure their foundational hardware won’t be the point of failure.
In the end, this is probably the right call. Rushing a change that could break device setup for thousands of corporate laptops would be a disaster. But it does leave that security gap open a bit longer. The question is, will IT admins see this as a welcome caution or a frustrating postponement of a much-needed feature? We’ll find out in 2026.
