Updating inactive compute instances is disclosed. It is determined that a first compute instance that boots from an operating system image on a first storage device is in an inactive state. It is determined that updates to the operating system image on the first storage device exist. The operating system image is copied from the first storage device to a second storage device. The operating system image on the second storage device is updated with the updates to generate an updated operating system image on the second storage device. The updated operating system image is copied form the second storage device to the first storage device in place of the operating system image.