Microsoft has decided to limit the regular Feature update in Windows 11 to just a single instance. In its place, a series of smaller and more regular updates will deliver new changes and settings.
While this is a welcome move, many people are not sure what feature, web, and online service experience packs actually are. Or even how and when Windows might deliver them. In this article, we’ve uncovered the details. So let’s get started.
What Are the Different Service Experience Packs?
The announcement came on February 3rd on the Microsoft Insider blog. Microsoft laid down their intentions about the future of Windows updates:
“We will deliver updates to features and experiences in builds from the Dev and Beta Channels by releasing Feature, Web, and Online Service Experience Packs on top of these builds too.”
The Experience Pack updates are just a way of updating specific settings of your PC, instead of a complete overhaul of all features. Microsoft chooses what to change based on user feedback.
Microsoft has so far spoken about three specific Experience packs: Feature Experience Packs, Online Service Experience Packs, and Web Experience Packs. Let’s look at them one by one.
Feature Experience Packs are a series of updates focused on Windows apps not covered by the major updates. They come on top of feature updates.
The Online Service Experience Packs will focus on specific Windows programs, like the account settings page, instead of focusing on every major Windows update. Microsoft announced its plans for Feature updates back on October 27, 2021:
“These Online Service Experience Packs work in a similar way as the Windows Feature Experience Packs do, allowing us to make updates to Windows outside of major OS updates. The difference between the two is that the Windows Feature Experience Packs can deliver broad improvements across multiple areas of Windows, whereas the Online Service Experience Packs are focused on delivering improvements for a specific experience such as the new Your Microsoft account settings page.”
Last but not least, we have the Web Experience Pack. The Web Experience Pack will cover all the updates for web-related Microsoft products at one time. So this includes things like Microsoft Edge, PWA, UWP, and so on. Microsoft is trying to draw a line between updates related to the Windows OS, and those for other Microsoft products.
While most updates will be available through the Windows Update, you'll have to rely on the Microsoft Store for the Web Experience Pack.
Experience Packs: A New Way to Update Windows 11
And that's everything we know so far. Is this the right move by Microsoft? We don't know, and only time will tell how this decision turns out. But in the erratic, fast-paced world of technology, it wouldn't be a far cry to expect similar developments in the future.