Windows 10 seems to have a problem where Windows Update will only offer one optional update at a time.
See also: Microsoft will not release new preview versions of Windows 10
Microsoft usually releases new updates that are considered optional and are not automatically installed by Windows Update.
Optional updates include new Windows 10 feature updates, Windows 10 cumulative preview updates, feature experience packs, and some out-of-band fixes that target a specific bug in the operating system.
However, for more than a year, Windows 10 has only offered one optional update at a time, even if there are multiple optional updates available for the version of Windows 10 you have.
See also: How to backup Windows 10 files/folders to Dropbox?
For example, the recently released Windows 10 21H1 update has preferential treatment in Windows Update and is offered independently of other available optional updates.
This week, Microsoft released the out-of-band (OOB) update KB5004476 for Windows 10 to fix an Xbox Game Pass bug that prevents users from installing or launching games.
What's disappointing is that even though this update applies to Windows 10 20H2, Windows Update wasn't offered on our devices until we installed the Windows 10 21H1 update.
Microsoft introduced a new “Optional Update Experience” in Windows 10 in 2019 that should resolve this issue and allow you to pick and choose which optional updates you want to install.
This feature apparently doesn't work, as before installing the Windows 10 21H1 feature update the optional update KB5004476 on the Optional Updates screen, as shown below.
As soon as we installed the optional Windows 10 21H1 feature update, Windows Update happily suggested the new optional update KB5004476 OOB.
BleepingComputer tested these same steps on multiple devices, and Windows 10 exhibited the same behavior on all of them.
While some of these optional updates are available from the Microsoft Catalog, many people are not familiar with manually installing Windows updates.
See also: The next version of Windows will be released on June 24th
It's unclear why Microsoft doesn't offer all optional updates in the "Optional updates" feature. However, in its current form, users are unnecessarily forced to install feature updates to access the updates they actually want.
Information source: bleepingcomputer.com
