As of last Tuesday Microsoft will no longer provide separate patches for Windows 7, 8.1, Servere 2008 R2, Server 2012 and Server 2012 R2 to address individual issues, the patches will all be bundled together in a 'monthly mega-patch'.
This might not sound like such a bad thing but this means is that it will no longer be possible to skip or revert functionality-breaking patches without also reverting security ones. So, should you hit an issue caused by the latest patch, your choice will be to have a functional or secure system, but not both.
Each patch now bundles together bugfixes, new features, some of which may be unwanted (like the telemetry ones) and security ones, increasing the footprint and so the possibility of the patch causing breakage.
It will also push Desktop users toward Windows 10, a system that, unless you use the most expensive versions of, offers you no control of which or when patches get applied.
While it's not the case yet, the apparent goal is to provide cumulative patches, which include the previous ones. This will exarcebate the problem of missing security patches, should you have to roll-back or skip a patch due to bugs.
So, once again, Microsoft ignores their customers and does what it is best for them, reducing the number of supported configurations.
Oh well! The silver lining to all this is that, working in a company that writes Windows desktop applications, we will now have to deal with far fewer patch levels when trying to troubleshoot customer issues.
For the full details go to:
Current changes: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/09/14/microsoft-ends-tuesday-patches/
Later changes: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/windowsitpro/2016/08/15/further-simplifying-servicing-model-for-windows-7-and-windows-8-1/
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