windows-itpro-docs/windows/deployment/windows-autopatch/manage/windows-autopatch-groups-policies.md

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title	description	ms.date	ms.service	ms.subservice	ms.topic	ms.localizationpriority	author	ms.author	manager	ms.reviewer	ms.collection
Autopatch group policies	This article describes Autopatch group policies	03/31/2025	windows-client	autopatch	how-to	medium	tiaraquan	tiaraquan	aaroncz	andredm7	highpri tier1

Autopatch group policies

The following Autopatch group policies are only created when you create an Autopatch group.

Update rings policy for Windows 10 and later

Autopatch groups create one Windows 10 Update Ring policy for each deployment ring you specify. These rings configure important update settings like automatic update behavior, deferrals, deadlines, and grace periods. See the following preset default policy values for restart-sensitive devices where the deadline and grace period aren't configured.

Policy name	Quality updates deferral in days	Feature updates deferral in days	Feature updates uninstall window in days	Deadline for quality updates in days	Deadline for feature updates in days	Grace period	Auto restart before deadline
Test	0	0	30	0	5	0	Yes
Ring 1	1	0	30	2	5	2	Yes
Ring 2	5	0	30	2	5	2	Yes
Ring 3	9	0	30	5	5	2	Yes
Last	10	0	30	3	5	2	Yes

Feature update policy for Windows 10 and later

If features updates are selected as a content type for an Autopatch group, a feature update policy is created with the Microsoft Entra groups for each update ring assigned to it. This policy does the following:

• Ensures existing devices on the target version don’t update beyond that version.
• If new devices are added to the Autopatch group and are below your target version, the devices are updated to the target version.

To achieve this outcome, the feature update policy is configured for immediate start as required.

Important

To safely deploy a new feature update, Autopatch recommends using a custom Windows feature update release. The custom release allows you to choose how and when different deployment rings receive the update. Autopatch doesn't recommend updating the minimum version within an Autopatch group until your rollout is complete. Doing so initiates a rollout which starts immediately for all members of that group.

Once you create a custom Windows feature update release, the Autopatch group's deployment rings are unassigned from that group’s feature update policy.

Autopatch groups set up the feature updates for Windows 10 and later policies for each of its deployment rings in the Default Autopatch group, see the following default policy values:

Policy name	Feature update version	Rollout options	First deployment ring availability	Final deployment ring availability	Day between deployment rings	Support end date
Autopatch group name - DSS Policy [Test]	Windows 10 21H2	Make update available as soon as possible	N/A	N/A	N/A	June 11, 2024
Autopatch group name - DSS Policy [Ring1]	Windows 10 21H2	Make update available as soon as possible	N/A	N/A	N/A	June 11, 2024
Autopatch group name - DSS Policy [Ring2]	Windows 10 21H2	Make update available as soon as possible	December 14, 2022	December 21, 2022	1	June 11, 2024
Autopatch group name - DSS Policy [Ring3]	Windows 10 21H2	Make update available as soon as possible	December 15, 2022	December 29, 2022	1	June 11, 2024
Autopatch group name - DSS Policy [Last]	Windows 10 21H2	Make update available as soon as possible	December 15, 2022	December 29, 2022	1	June 11, 2024