Microsoft has extended Windows Server 2022 hotpatching until October 2027, one year after the mainstream end date of October 2026.

This comes with the following caveat: extended support is only available for systems running Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition that are enrolled in hotpatch updates. This change is effective immediately, and the existing hotpatch cadence will remain unchanged through October 2027.

On systems where hotpatching is enabled, Windows deploys security updates by patching the in-memory code of running processes without restarting them after each installation or rebooting the device.