Service packs, hot fixes and patches are important to maintain the health and security of your system. Read more about why it is often critical to keep them up to date.

Service Packs are a collection of programmes which fix code errors, update existing functions within a programme or suite or programmes or add further functionality and features to existing programmes. Service Packs can be either incremental, adding further changes on top of previous service packs, or cumulative. In the case of the latter, newer service packs contain the updates from the previous service packs plus any new updates. Service packs are generally numbered and so will be identified by terms such as SP1, SP2 and so on.

Microsoft service packs are generally cumulative. Where Microsoft release non-cumulative updates, they will be referred to a as Service Releases (SRn).

Patches, sometimes referred to as Hotfixes,  are generally updates for specific issues relating to programme code. Much of the time they relate to security problems but sometimes rectify functional problems such as incompatibility with peripheral devices. Patches are generally released by Microsoft on Tuesday of each week (US time).

The installation of service packs and patches should be a priority for any system administrator or business owner, particularly when these updates address security related issues. Failure to address security issues, in particular, may compromise the security of the business system and lead to data loss. 

Microsodt embeds an automatic update facility within Windows. This feature will automatically apply critical updates at a regular time as selected by the user. Note that automatic updates do not apply optional updates, service packs, most major application updates or security rollups. Each of these must be manually applied by the computer user.