Microsoft AutoUpdate and Deferred Updates

Important

You should that you stay current on all updates. Staying current ensures you receive the latest security patches, stability improvements, and new features, keeping your system secure and up to date.

Starting from Version 4.68.1, Microsoft AutoUpdate supports the following cases where more time is required:

• Deferring an update by many days (maximum of 28 days). Referred to as "Deferral Days" in the document.
• Setting "do not update beyond" version (to the maximum of 90 days). Referred to as "Deferral Version" in this document.

If both are defined, Deferral Version takes precedence over the Deferral Days setting for the app.

Important

Deferral Days and Deferral Versions don’t apply to critical updates. They will be offered or installed (when "Automatically keep Microsoft apps up to date" is selected) regardless.

Deferral Days

This feature allows the deferral of available updates for many days.

Global Deferral Days setting

Deferral Days can be set globally with the following preferences setting:

Category	Details
Domain	com.microsoft.autoupdate2
Key	OptionalUpdatesDeferralsDays
Data Type	Integer
Possible values	1–28. Values less than one are ignored. Any value over 28 days sets the Deferral Days to 28.
Comments	There's no default value.

Example of Configuring Deferral Days

This example demonstrates how to set Deferral Days to 14. In this configuration, Microsoft AutoUpdate will postpone offering or applying updates for 14 days after the build date:

<key>OptionalUpdatesDeferralsDays</key>
<integer>14</integer>

App specific Deferral Days setting

Deferral Days can also be set for individual applications. If set, app-specific deferral days take precedence over the global setting.

App-specific deferral days can be set with the following preferences setting:

Category	Details
Domain	com.microsoft.autoupdate2
Key	OptionalUpdatesDeferrals
Data Type	Dictionary
Key	DeferralDays
Data Type	Dictionary
Key	Application ID
Data Type	Integer
Possible values	1–28. Values less than one are ignored. Any value over 28 days sets the Deferral days to 28.
Comments	There's no default value.

Example of setting different Deferral Days for Word and Excel

This example shows how to set Deferral Days to seven for Microsoft Word 2019 and to 12 for Microsoft Excel 2019. With this setup, Microsoft AutoUpdate delays offering or applying updates after they're built. It delays updates to Microsoft Word by seven days and updates to Microsoft Excel by 12 days.

<key>OptionalUpdatesDeferrals</key>
<dict>
    <key>DeferralDays</key>
    <dict>
        <key>MSWD2019</key>
        <integer>7</integer>
        <key>XCEL2019</key>
        <integer>12</integer>
    </dict>
</dict>

Deferral Version

This feature allows users to set an upper limit to the update version. That is, discovered updates are offered/applied to and including the specified version.

To allow for updates to be discovered and applied, only the Major. Minor version number scheme is recognized. For example, 16.82 needs to be specified to receive any 16.82.xxxxxxxx builds.

Due to differences in version numbers among Microsoft applications, this option needs to be set individually for each app with the following preference settings:

Category	Details
Domain	com.microsoft.autoupdate2
Key	OptionalUpdatesDeferrals
Data Type	Dictionary
- Key: DeferralVersions	Data Type: Dictionary
- Key: Application ID	Data Type: String

Possible values for the version are specified as Major.Minor version numbers. There's no default value for this setting.

Example of Setting Deferral versions for Word and Excel

This example shows how to set the Deferral Version to 16.82 for Microsoft Word 2019 and to 16.81 for Microsoft Excel 2019:

<key>OptionalUpdatesDeferrals</key>
<dict>
    <key>DeferralVersions</key>
    <dict>
        <key>MSWD2019</key>
        <string>16.82</string>
        <key>XCEL2019</key>
        <string>16.81</string>
    </dict>
</dict>

Note

There is a 90-day limit (subject to change) on how long one can stay on the specified version without updating. Once this window has passed, Microsoft AutoUpdate will offer/apply the next oldest update that is within the 90-day window.

For example, the following table shows available updates for Microsoft Word 2019 (MSWD2019) and which one is offered/applied once the 90-day window is passed:

Available Update Versions	Days since build	Notes
16.85.X	5
16.84.X	25
16.83.X	55
16.82.24021813	85	Next Update version
16.82.24021116	92
16.81.24012814	106	Current Installed Version