January 2025 Testing Guidance copy

January 2025 Testing Guidlines

Greg Lambert
January 15, 2025
2 minutes

Each month, the team at Readiness analyses the latest Patch Tuesday updates from Microsoft and provides detailed, actionable testing guidance. This guidance is based on assessing a large application portfolio and a detailed analysis of the Microsoft patches and their potential impact on the Windows platforms and application installations.

For this January release cycle from Microsoft, we have grouped the critical updates and required testing efforts into different functional areas including:

Remote Desktop

This month has a heavy focus on Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway) and network protocols.  Testing guidance includes:

  • RD Gateway Connections: Ensure RD Gateway  (RDG) continues to facilitate both UDP and TCP traffic seamlessly, without performance degradation. Try disconnecting RDG from an existing/established connection.
  • VPN, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth Scenarios: Test end-to-end configurations and nearby sharing functionality.
  • DNS Management for Operators: Verify that users in the “Network Configuration Operators” group can manage DNS client settings effortlessly.

Local Windows File System and Storage

File system and storage components also see minor updates. Desktop and server file system testing efforts should focus on:

  • Offline Files and Mapped Drives: Test workflows with mapped network drives under both online and offline conditions. Pay close attention to Sync Center status updates.
  • BitLocker: Validate drive locking and unlocking, BitLocker-native boot scenarios, and post-hibernation states with BitLocker enabled.

Virtualization and Microsoft Hyper-V

Hyper-V and virtual machines receive lightweight updates this month:

  • Traffic Testing: Install the Hyper-V feature and restart systems. Monitor network performance and ensure no regressions in virtual network traffic or virtual machine management.

Security and Authentication

Key areas for security-related testing include:

  • Digest Authentication Stress Testing: Simulate excessive loads while utilizing Digest authentication to uncover potential issues.
  • SPNEGO Negotiations: Verify Secure Negotiation Protocol (SPNEGO) functionalities in cross-domain or multi-forest Active Directory setups.
  • Authentication Scenarios: Test applications relying on LSASS processes and ensure protocols like Kerberos, NTLM, and certificate-based authentication remain stable under load.

Other Critical Updates

Some additional testing priorities for this release:

  • App Deployment Scenarios: Install and update MSIX/Appx packages with and without packaged services, confirming admin-only requirements for updates.
  • WebSocket Connections: Establish and monitor secure WebSocket connections, ensuring proper encryption and handshake results.
  • Graphics and Themes: Test GDI+-based apps and workflows involving theme files to ensure UI elements render correctly across different view modes. Some suggestions include foreign language applications that rely on Input Method Editors (IME’s).

January’s updates maintain a low-risk profile for most systems, but testing remains essential—especially for networking, authentication, and file system scenarios. We recommend prioritizing remote network traffic validation, with light testing for storage and virtualization environments. If you have a large MSIX/Appx package portfolio, there is a lot of work to do ensure that your package install, update and uninstall successfully.

Greg Lambert

CEO, Product Evangelist
Greg Lambert is the CEO and product evangelist for Application Readiness Inc. Greg is a co-founder of ChangeBASE and has considerable experience with application packaging technology and its deployment.

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