According to the Microsoft Update blog, a substantial update to the Windows Update agent is on the way. The company says this update should increase the speed with which it will scan your system, as well as the number of patches it can download."Occasionally, we must update the infrastructure of Windows Update in order to ensure a high level of service quality, reliability, and operation. As part of this process, we update both the back-end infrastructure that supports the service as well as the client-side code (i.e., the Windows Update agent, or client)," says the Microsoft Update blog.

So what is the company working on now? It says it will be speeding the time it takes for Windows Update to scan your system for updates, and how quickly signature updates are downloaded. In some cases, the Microsoft bloggers write, performance increases of 20% have been had.

And you just may need all of the performance boost you can get, because the new update will make it possible to install more than 80 updates at the same time.

Let's all hope that handy little feature isn't needed too often.

Microsoft says the updated Microsoft Update will be rolled out in the next couple of months.