I wonder if anyone uses Windows for mission-critical applications such as military or space-flight.
I remember years ago bring my daughter to the hospital when she was very sick, and the receptionist asked us some questions and then stared at the windows hourglass for a few minutes. The doctor came out, looked at what was happening, and told my daughter to get into the examining room.
Yeah, the military (ours and Britain's and probably a few others) integrated Windows XP years ago into the control and/or monitoring systems. And it's still there.
I don't have the links right at hand, but Google is your friend -- there are recurring tech articles about the compromised security that has resulted from the military using Windows in mission critical applications.
There is a specific version of Windows 10 that is not automatically updated, made especially for mission critical or secure environments.
Windows 10 Long-term Servicing Channel:
Specialized systems—such as PCs that control medical equipment, point-of-sale systems, and ATMs—often require a longer servicing option because of their purpose. These devices typically perform a single important task and don’t need feature updates as frequently as other devices in the organization. It’s more important that these devices be kept as stable and secure as possible than up to date with user interface changes. The LTSC servicing model prevents Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB devices from receiving the usual feature updates and provides only quality updates to ensure that device security stays up to date. With this in mind, quality updates are still immediately available to Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB clients, but customers can choose to defer them by using one of the servicing tools mentioned in the section Servicing tools.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/waas-overview#long-term-servicing-channel
“I wonder if anyone uses Windows for mission-critical applications such as military or space-flight.”
Yes, I use Windows 3.1 for military and space flight.
In corporate and other environments, the IT Team pushes the update it wants to push, when it wants to push them, and to the devices it wants to push them...for government agencies, the updates are also checked against other system criticality aspects and may be dismissed or modified before pushing....