Microsoft has announced that it would require a subscription paid for Windows Server 2025 Hotpatching, a service that enables admins to set up security updates without any restart.
The company urged the Admins to try Hotpaching for free before they are generally available in July, when they would have to pay for membership to test it.
However, Redmund has currently warned the Windows server 2025 hotpatching tests that they are in preview before or before 30 June so that they do not subscribe automatically in July.
“Hotpatching for Windows Server 2025, made available in preview in 2024, usually will be available as a membership service on July 1, 2025. With hotpatching, we are taking what was earlier available for Windows server machines outside the azure,” Microsoft said,
“Hotpatching is no longer a fee to preview, but starts with a membership launch in July, Hotpatching for Windows Server 2025 per month will be introduced on $ 1.50 USD per CPU core membership.”
To use hotpatching in multi-cloud environments or on-rimses, you will need a hotpatch service subscription and an ezore arc-connected server that runs the Windows Server 2025 standard or datastery.
To enable hotpatching on your server, connect it using Azure Arc. This stepThen go to the Azure update manager in the Azure portal, select your Azure ArC-competent server, and check the hotpatching option Detailed here,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls7BS4jsu_o
Hotpatching is available from February 2022 for Windows Server 2022 datacender: Azure version, when Microsoft announced its general availability for Windows Server Azure Edition core virtual machines.
On the devices where hotpatching is tolerated, Windows deposes security updates by patching the in-memory code of running processes after each installation and without rebuting them without rebooting the device.
However, the server still requires reboots after installing distributed updates through a regular (non-Haotpatch) Windows update channel, which are not included in the hotpatch program. Two examples of updates that cannot be installed without restarts are non-Windows updates (eg .NET patch) and Windows Non-Safety updates.
Microsoft began testing hotpatching in public preview for Windows Server 2025 in September 2024 and Windows 11 24h2 and Windows 365 two months later in November 2024.
Since April 2025, Hotpatch updates are usually available to commercial customers using Windows 11 Enterprise 24H2 on the X64 (AMD/Intel) system.