Windows Updates through Qubes Manager -> Qubes Update

User Support
1

Greetings,

I am a heavy user of Windows Qubes and have encountered several abnormal behaviors in how they integrate into the OS which I hope to gain some insight on here.

I have never had any issues using Qubes Update to update any of my other Linux template VMs. However, I have never been able to get Qubes Update to install Windows Updates for me.

In my list of Qubes to update (after launching the Qubes manager → Qubes Update) the Windows Qubes are already grayed out. Interestingly, from the Qubes Manager itself, I can select the “Update” button in the UI when I select my specific Windows Qube from the list. It will complain unless it is already running, but if it is running, the entire Qubes Manager suddenly vanishes (crashes?) and no update is performed.

How can I use the Qubes Update feature to update my Windows Qubes, whether they be standalone or template?

2
3

There is nothing special about Windows.
Templates or standalones will only be updateable through the GUI if you have salt
compatibility.
It is possible, but not trivial, to get Windows working with the Qubes
salt mechanism.

I raised an issue so that qubes that cannot be updated with the
updater will be excluded or greyed out.

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