Microsoft Rolls Out Wake On LAN For Easier Remote Windows 10 Updates

The design of Windows Update in Microsoft's latest Windows 10 OS hasn't been the best-received solution the company has released over the product's life cycle thus far. The updated mechanics for WU is one of the major sticking-points for even wanting to upgrade to Redmond's latest platform (but thankfully, there are improvements coming). No one likes their PC rebooting on its own while they're away from it - and many have lost work because of it random reboots required in an update.

Despite that, Microsoft does try to give users and IT managers useful tools from time-to-time, with this latest feature targeting Windows Update that's at least sure to save many an IT guy or girl some level of tedium.

As part of a new software package called "Surface Tools for IT", Microsoft allows IT managers to "deploy, manage and secure" a Surface device with ease. That includes the ability to wake the device up over the Internet (or "Wake On LAN"), allowing it to ping Windows Update and pull down the latest security patches or feature additions.

In most cases, this IT tools package should be easily installable, but in some cases a driver might need to be extracted with a hand-made registry edit possibly required. The Wake On LAN support is currently supported in the latest stable version of Windows 10. While the feature is only available for Surface devices right now, we're hopeful that Microsoft will see clear to bringing the functionality to other Windows notebooks and mobile devices over time.