Intune Update Rings and Feature Update - how to keep them separate

Question

Hi folks,

Quick and easy one I hope.

Do we need to use a Windows Update ring profile and a Feature update policy to push Windows 10 to 11 upgrades? Or can we configure an Update ring profile with "Upgrade Windows 10 devices to Latest Windows 11 release" turned off and just have the Feature update policy assigned to the groups we want to get Windows 11?

Our logic is having our devices be able to get Windows Updates via Update ring profile(s), but not be able to upgrade from 10 to 11 via the same profiles. In other words, we can assign All devices to an Update ring profile, but a security group to the Feature update policy for 11 (24H2 for example). And only the device in the security group will get both patches and OS upgrades.

Sorry if this is trivial, but can't seem to find an answer that definitively says do it this way, it's MS best practice.

Thanks.

Answer 1

@yeooandyni, Thanks for posting in Q&A.

Based on my research, Update Ring Profiles control how and when devices receive quality and feature updates, including settings like deferral periods and restart behavior.

Feature Update Policies allow you to specify a target Windows version to which devices should update, they provide granular control over which devices receive specific feature updates, ensuring that only designated devices upgrade to a particular Windows version.

So, we can create Update rings policy and feature update policy at the same time and control which device can upgrade to Windows 11. And please ensure turn off Upgrade Windows 10 devices to Latest Windows 11 release" in update rings policy, configure which windows 11 version you want the devices in security group to upgrade in feature update policy.

Here are the upgrade requirements you can refer to.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune-service/protect/windows-10-feature-updates#prerequisites

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune-service/protect/windows-10-update-rings#prerequisites

Hope it can help you.

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