No more Patch Tuesday: Windows 10 to update automatically every day

'Tradition' established during the time of Windows 98 to be discontinued with Windows 10

Microsoft's Patch Tuesday "tradition" will draw to a close with the introduction of Windows 10, which is expected to launch at the end of July - as Microsoft introduces automatic updates every day with the new operating system.

According to Terry Myerson, executive vice president of operating systems at Microsoft, software updates to all Windows devices - PCs, laptops, tablet computers and smartphones - will be rolled out 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Under a rolling system of updates, home users will receive updates first, while IT administrators will be able to plan patch rollouts and schedule updates accordingly under a "Windows Update for Business" feature.

Windows 10 will include various layers of security, claimed Myerson in a blog post to coincide with his Ignite 2015 keynote. These include Secure Boot "to ensure that only trusted software loads when the device is turned on, and Device Guard, which "ensures applications from trusted sources, including the Windows Store for Business, are allowed to run".

Also, he added, "Windows 10 includes a new device health capability that allows enterprises and websites to ensure that users only access services from healthy, fully updated, and compliant devices".

In addition, Windows 10 will include Microsoft Passport to protect credentials "and securely authenticate with websites and networks on your behalf - without sending up a password.

"With Microsoft Passport, there is no password to be phished from the user or stored on a server for hackers to potentially compromise. Microsoft Passport puts enterprises on the path to putting "pass the hash" attacks behind them for good. And, of course, there's Windows Hello, which makes biometric authentication simpler than ever."

Myerson also claimed that the Windows Store for Business will run only certified applications - although it will need to be a lot better than the current Windows Store in that regard - and on-device encryption capabilities, which has up until now (and Edward Snowden) only been available as an add-on packaged application.

Myerson detailed the new approach to patches and updates at a keynote speech at Ignite 2015 in Chicago earlier this week, where he took the opportunity to criticise Google for its haphazard approach to updating its Android operating system. "Google ships a big pile of... code, with no commitment to update your device," he said.

The Patch Tuesday tradition evolved following the introduction of Windows 98, which was launched in June 1998. It included the Windows Update tool for the first time to make it easier to introduce new features and patches online.

Unlike earlier operating systems, the popularisation of the internet had also made it easier for malware that exploited bugs and security loopholes to propagate and Microsoft needed a mechanism to roll out updates quickly and cheaply.