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In an ideal world, software developers would discover every vulnerability while creating their product and fix it before releasing it. Unfortunately, in the real world, patch management is the next best thing to take care of security vulnerabilities and fix bugs. It also ensures all devices run the latest software versions to access updated functions or new features.

Patch management refers to the notification, identification, deployment, installation, and verification of the operating system and software application to computing endpoints. The most common types of patches are security patches, bug fixes, and feature updates. Windows patch management, or Windows patching, is the process of managing patches for Microsoft Windows.

The patches are inserted into the code of an existing program as a stop-gap arrangement until a new full release of software becomes available. Since October 2003, Microsoft has released patch updates on “Patch Tuesday,” which falls on the second Tuesday of every month. Patch Tuesday lets system administrators prepare for the possible effects patching may have on Windows systems.

Read more: Patch Management Process for Windows