Quality Updates During Autopilot Enrollment is back

In the Intune service release for August 2025, we’re getting some great new additions, which you can read about here.

The big change in this update is the return of Windows quality updates (not feature updates!) during Autopilot enrollment—and they will be enabled by default. You can read the full announcement here. Some of you might remember the previous attempt to roll this out didn’t go so well, as it was enabled by default without an option to turn it off. This time, we finally have the ability to disable it if needed.

It all sounds great—updates during ESP. We all want our devices to be updated, right? Well, not always. It depends. The main problem with Windows updates being delivered during Autopilot enrollment has always been the extended enrollment time. Depending on the device’s patch level, and the network speed, you might add another 20–30 minutes to the process, which can be significant if you already have several apps blocking your ESP.

Be sure to consider the impact before enabling this feature, and test it first on a few devices to gauge the average increase in enrollment time.

Disabling Updates in the ESP

If you don’t want this feature, you’ll need to go to your ESP (Enrollment Status Page) settings and disable it. By default, it will be turned on.

Note: If you don’t see this option in your ESP settings yet, it’s because the feature is still rolling out globally.

Final Thoughts

A great addition in the future would be a conditional rule that allows IT admins to enable updates during ESP only if the OS patch level is below a certain build number. The current alternative is to use enrollment restrictions, which block devices from enrolling when they’re below a required patch level. However, this forces the user (or IT) to manually update the device—usually by pressing Shift+F10 → control update or similar—before it can be enrolled. Not exactly the best user experience.

For now, though, this is still a very welcome change that has been highly requested for a long time. It’s nice to see it finally here. 🙂