The feature is roadmap item 558251. It is marked as launched, with preview in May 2026 and general availability in June 2026 on the Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) cloud. Microsoft is still rolling the new interface out tenant by tenant, so some admins may not see it yet.
What actually changed
Microsoft Learn says that with enhanced rollout waves, admins can create more waves, set custom delays between waves, and manage rollout timing from one configuration page. The main changes:
- More waves. Admins can create up to nine custom waves by assigning Microsoft Entra groups, for a maximum of 10 waves. A final wave is included by default and contains all remaining devices in the Monthly Enterprise profile that aren't assigned to an earlier wave.
- Custom delays. Admins can set custom delays between rollout waves, up to seven days per wave.
- One settings page. Update deadlines and rollout waves are now managed from the new Rollout configuration settings page.
- Better visibility. The wave chart now shows a longer rollout schedule, and there is a new wave overview flyout.
- Channel changes follow waves. Microsoft says channel change now honors rollout waves, so devices due to switch channel move with their assigned wave.
For comparison, Cloud Update used to allow three custom waves. A walkthrough on InTheCloud247 explained that admins could add three waves themselves, with an additional fourth wave containing all remaining devices. The new version roughly triples the number of rings you can build.
Section summary: You get up to nine Entra-group waves plus an automatic final wave, a delay of up to seven days per gap, and wave and deadline settings in one place.
The 25-day ceiling
This is the limit admins need to plan around. Microsoft states that the combined wave delay and deadline cannot exceed 25 days for the Monthly Enterprise profile. Microsoft says the cap leaves time for devices to finish updating within the 28-day monthly release cycle.
A quick sum shows why it matters. Ten waves have nine gaps between them. At seven days per gap, that adds up to 63 days of delay, about two and a half release cycles. So the seven-day limit per wave is not the real constraint. The 25-day total is.
For example, with the default three-day deadline, all your wave delays together can add up to 22 days. If you set the deadline to 14 days so users can postpone longer, only 11 days are left for staging every wave. Every extra day you give users in the deadline is a day you can't use between waves.
The Rollout configuration page has a Total delay counter that shows the combined figure before you save. Existing tenants whose settings already go over the cap get a one-time automatic cut to the update deadline. Microsoft says all other rollout-wave settings are kept. If you had a long deadline and generous wave gaps, check your deadline after the new experience arrives.
Section summary: The real limit is 25 days of wave delays plus deadline combined, not seven days per wave. Settings that already exceed it will have the update deadline shortened once, automatically.
Where waves apply, and where they don't
Rollout waves only work in the Monthly Enterprise profile:
- Current profile: No waves. Microsoft says Current Channel releases come too often for them. Devices in that profile get updates within one to two days of release, paced by Microsoft's global throttle.
- Monthly Enterprise without waves: Waves are optional and off by default. Without them, devices update over four to five days, paced by Cloud Update's internal throttle.
- Eligibility: A device must already be eligible for and assigned to the Monthly Enterprise profile before it can join a wave. Wave group assignment is separate from profile assignment.
- Rollback: Waves don't apply to rollback.
A separate Cloud Update change from May–June 2026 means profiles are now activated by assigning groups, and that profile assignment also sets a device's update channel. So you are now managing two kinds of group: which groups are assigned to the profile, and which groups go in each wave. Name your Entra groups so nobody mixes them up.
Clock behavior that can catch admins out
The wave schedule starts with each new update release, typically on Patch Tuesday. It keeps running while a profile is paused or an exclusion window is active. It does not restart when the pause or exclusion ends.
Microsoft's own example: pause a profile on Patch Tuesday and resume it ten days later, and every wave scheduled in those ten days has already passed. Devices that still need the update can start getting it straight away. In practice, a long pause can turn a careful staggered rollout into an almost simultaneous one when you resume. The IT Perfection reference guide puts it the same way: waves continue aging during the pause, so eligible waves can begin immediately after resume.
Timing of enrollment matters too. Microsoft advises assigning devices to Monthly Enterprise early in each release, because devices added later in the month are more likely to update outside the wave schedule.
Older Microsoft field notes on adopting Cloud Update also warned that setting changes also recalculate custom rollout waves and the rollout restarts with wave 1. That guidance comes from before the enhanced experience, and the current documentation doesn't repeat it. Still, it's a good reason to make wave changes between releases rather than in the middle of a rollout.
How to set it up
The new interface is rolling out gradually. If you don't see Rollout configuration, keep using the existing rollout-wave instructions until it appears. The Cloud Update general availability announcement listed Office Apps Administrator as the recommended role, with Security Administrator and Global Administrator also supported. Global Reader is supported in the admin center but cannot manage Cloud Update.
- Sign in to the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center with an account allowed to manage Cloud Update.
- In the left navigation, expand Cloud Update and select Monthly Enterprise.
- Open the Settings tab and select Rollout configuration.
- Select Yes, create rollout waves.
- Select + Add waves, add your Microsoft Entra groups, set Delay before next wave, and select Save. Repeat for each wave.
- Check the Total delay counter against the 25-day cap, then select Save to commit the configuration.
To check that it's working, go to the Monthly Enterprise profile page and select View waves overview under the wave chart. Microsoft says the flyout shows wave details, including the wave name, start date, device count, and rollout status for each wave.
A device in a later wave may show as completed before its wave has started. That isn't necessarily a fault. Microsoft says it can occur when the device is already up to date when it onboards to cloud update, when an online repair updates the installation, or when the Office Deployment Tool changes the installation and triggers an update.
How users experience the deadline
The deadline is the other half of your 25-day budget. It is required for both the Current and Monthly Enterprise profiles, defaults to three days, and can be set from 0 to 14 days. It doesn't apply to New Outlook or Microsoft Teams.
When the deadline passes, users are asked to save their work and close their apps. They can postpone up to three times, two hours each time. A final 30-minute countdown follows the third postponement. At zero, the updater saves open files, closes the apps, installs the update and reopens everything. Microsoft says downtime is typically under five minutes. A zero-day deadline shows the prompt as soon as an update is available and the apps are open, but users still get their three postponements.
Designing your rings: analysis
Microsoft gives one example strategy: waves 1 and 2 for the first 20% of devices, which you watch closely, and waves 3 and 4 for the remaining 80%. That's an example, not a rule. Here is one way the extra waves could be used. This is general deployment practice, not official guidance:
| Wave | Possible cohort | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | IT and the desktop engineering team | Find problems before anyone else sees them |
| 2 | Application owners and macro-heavy power users | Check line-of-business add-ins and VBA |
| 3 | Pilot users from each department | A representative sample of the business |
| 4–9 | Business units, regions or sites | Spread out helpdesk load and network traffic |
| 10 (default) | Everyone not assigned to a wave | Catches every device you didn't place |
Remember that all the gaps plus the deadline must fit in 25 days. Nine week-long gaps are out of the question, so a ten-wave design will mostly use one-, two- or three-day gaps.
There are trade-offs. The roadmap tracker CloudScout warns that without preparation, the added waves and custom delays may lead to confusion among IT admins regarding the management of multiple waves and custom delays. That's fair. Ten rings with different delays are harder to reason about than three, especially since pauses don't stop the clock. More waves also don't mean more safety if wave 1 never gets tested properly.
Bottom line
For organizations on Monthly Enterprise Channel, enhanced rollout waves bring Cloud Update closer to the ring-based deployment admins already use for Windows updates: more cohorts, custom gaps and one place to manage it all. To get the most from it:
- Plan wave delays and the deadline together so they fit within 25 days.
- Expect the schedule to keep running during pauses and exclusion windows.
- Enroll devices in Monthly Enterprise early in each release.
- Watch for the automatic deadline cut if your current settings go over the cap.
If your tenant doesn't show the new interface yet, keep using your current three-wave setup until it does.