updates for office are ready to be installed

Microsoft tests updates on systems that already have all the available previous updates applied, so if having a different mix of updates installed is going to cause a problem, you'll have to find that out by testing on your own systems. Even if you'd installed all the monthly security-only updates, you wouldn't have had the right version of Windows Update. That caused a problem in August 2018, for example, when the security update could only be installed on PCs with the September 2016 version of Windows Update. The Monthly Rollup and Security-only packages have only been available since October 2016, which means older PCs can have a confusing mix of updates applied depending on which model you've been using. SEE: Top cloud providers 2019: A leader's guide to the major players (Tech Pro Research) Now that Windows 7 is in extended support, the Monthly Rollup rarely includes fixes that aren't security updates - and of course, extended support for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 ends on January 12 2020. They're both marked as 'required' security updates because they both have the full set of security fixes, so you should pick one type of update to install and stick to it. Windows 7 (and 8) also get a cumulative Monthly Rollup with security, non-security and IE 11 fixes, and a Security-only package of new security updates that doesn't include patches from previous months (or IE updates, so if you want those without taking the Monthly Rollup, you need to install the separate IE cumulative update). With previous versions of Windows, Patch Tuesday updates were published as individual patches that you could pick and choose from. Those can be released at any time through the month, if there's a security or quality fix that's too urgent to wait 'til the next Patch Tuesday (including fixes for problems caused by a Patch Tuesday update) and they don't happen every month.

The Patch Tuesday updates include both security and non-security fixes, and if you leave Windows Update to get updates on its own schedule, they're the only updates that will download apart from the 'on-demand' updates. Updates for Microsoft Office also come on the second Tuesday of the month. Updates come out on a Tuesday not a Monday, and at 10am Pacific Time (or the rather less convenient 6pm UK time) so that they're not the first thing admins and users have to deal with when they arrive at the beginning of the week, or first thing in the morning. The date and time for Patch Tuesday (or as Microsoft prefers to call it, Update Tuesday), are carefully chosen - at least for the US.

Windows 11: Tips on installation, security and more (free PDF).

Ten Windows 10 network commands everyone one should know.

Why Windows 11's security is such a big deal.

Windows 11 cheat sheet: Everything you need to know.

Updates for office are ready to be installed