Last week, Surface Pro 4 received a slew of mysterious new firmware updates. Today, we learned what they were.

I always internally debate how to handle this kind of thing: I had heard about these updates from readers last week, but Microsoft didn’t provide any information about them, either on the Surface Pro 4 update history website or its Surface Blog for IT Pros. The latter source usually provides a bit more color, but it’s still silent over there. Fortunately, the Surface Pro 4 update history website has finally been updated, however.

This is what it tells us:

Surface – Biometric – 2.2.11.0. Surface Fingerprint Sensor – Biometric device 2.2.11.0 enables support for Surface Pro Type Cover and the Surface Pro Signature Type Covers.

Surface – HID – 1.0.173.1. Surface PTP Filter – HID 1.0.173.1 enables support for Surface Pro Type Cover and the Surface Pro Signature Type Covers.

Surface – HID – 1.0.2.0. Surface Pro Type Cover Integration – HID 1.0.2.0 enables support for Surface Pro Type Cover and the Surface Pro Signature Type Covers.

Surface – System – 3.0.0.0. Surface Smart Cover Backlight – System device 3.0.0.0 enables support for Surface Pro Type Cover and the Surface Pro Signature Type Covers.

According to the “value indicator” chart, these updates are purely for compatibility purposes, not security, reliability, connectivity, performance, or battery life. But based on the descriptions above, that’s pretty obvious.

Tagged with Surface Pro 4