Windows 10: Windows 10 could see a major shift in its feature update schedule

According to sources, Microsoft is considering options to move to a single feature update per year for Windows 10 to speed up the development of Windows 10X.

Microsoft has already finished and released Windows 10 version 2004, the year’s first feature upgrade. Next is Windows 10 version 20H2, which is said to be a smaller update in size, but it will come with some nifty improvements, including the new Start Menu and other tweaks.

Last year, Microsoft switched to a “major-minor” cadence for Windows 10 and the fall update was converted into a service pack-like release to focus on bug fixes and performance improvements.

Microsoft has confirmed that it will repeat last year’s major-minor cadence for Windows 10’s feature upgrades in 2020.

Currently, Windows 10 feature updates roll out in the spring and in the fall. The first feature of the year is released between April and May, while the second update comes out between October and November.

Microsoft’s rumoured plan to switch to a single feature update per year for Windows 10 will free up engineers to work on Windows 10X, a web-first lightweight OS for low-cost hardware.



This shift in the feature update schedule should also allow Microsoft to prepare the new operating system for the dual-screen hardware in 2022.

One theory is that Windows 10 may not get a feature update for the first half of 2021. As a result, the new Start Menu and a few other features which were scheduled for Windows 10 21H1 have been migrated into this year’s fall update.

With Build 19042.421 for Windows 10 version 20H2, Microsoft has already introduced a number of new UX improvements, including Edge integration in Alt-Tab, a new Start menu, improvements to the taskbar, and several bug fixes.



All these improvements also appear to suggest that Microsoft is adding some of the features from Windows 10 21H1 update because the OS may not get an update for the first half of 2021.

As part of the new schedule, Microsoft will launch Windows 10X in the spring of 2021 and the 2021 fall update becomes a major feature update for Windows 10.

Dropping major-minor upgrade cadence for one single release a year would be a big change and it could also make Windows 10 less buggy. At the moment, this report is based on an anonymous tip and it should be taken with a grain of salt as Microsoft’s schedule could change again in the future.

If Microsoft is sticking to the rumoured roadmap, Microsoft’s new update schedule could look something like this:

• Windows 10 version 20H2 with new Start Menu and other tweaks in October/November 2020.
• Windows 10X for new Chromebook-like devices in Spring 2021. Windows 10X will not launch as an update for existing or traditional hardware.
• Windows 10 version 21H1/21H2 in October/November 2021.

The rumoured single update schedule makes sense for users in the long term and it could finally make feature updates less buggy.

The post Windows 10 could see a major shift in its feature update schedule appeared first on Windows Latest

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Two major Windows 10 updates scheduled for 2017




It may come as no surprise, but Microsoft won't release another major update for Windows 10 in 2016. The good news is you can expect two big updates to Microsoft’s latest operating system in 2017.

Microsoft let the information slip in a TechNet blog post published earlier in the week. “Windows 10, version 1607 is our third Windows 10 feature update released,” Microsoft said in the blog post. “Based on feedback from organizations moving to Windows 10, this will be our last feature update for 2016, with two additional feature updates expected in 2017.”

The blog post appears to confirm reports from the Windows rumor mill about the timing of the next two updates for Windows 10. The first update, dubbed Redstone 2, is expected to roll out in early 2017 with the second, Redstone 3, landing in the summer or early fall, similar to the timing of the recently released Anniversary Update (previously known as Redstone 1).

This schedule would put Microsoft back on a two updates per year schedule similar to the initial rollout of Windows 10, as Windows Central first pointed out. In 2015, Microsoft released Windows 10 (also known as Threshold) in July and then the November Update(dubbed Threshold 2) three months later.

This time around, Redstone 2 is expected to roll out in the spring and then Redstone 3 should hit about four to six months later.

The impact on you at home: Of the two updates, Redstone 2 looks to be the most interesting so far. Not necessarily because of the features, which are believed to be largely things that weren’t ready for the Anniversary Update. The big deal is that the early 2017 update is expected to roll out in concert with new hardware from Microsoft, asZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley first reported back in March.

Early builds of Redstone 2 are expected to roll out to Windows Insiders in the coming weeks.

Two major Windows 10 updates scheduled for 2017

 

Windows 10 Creators Update to Feature New Levels of Privacy Control

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Next Major Windows 10 Update Named "Spring Creators Update"

The next Windows 10 service pack major update has been named "Spring Creators Update." Windows Insider Program users toying with Build 17618 of the operating system spotted a listing of all the major updates of Windows 10 known to the build, when running "Get-VMHostSupportedVersion" in Power Shell. The last entry reads "Microsoft Windows 10 Spring Creators Update 1803." The version number (1803 in this case), often coincides with the public release date of the update. The Fall Creators Update 1709, released in 2017-09 (September) to Insiders. Going by that convenion, Spring Creators Update could see a "branded" Insider preview build this month, 2018-03 (March), with a public release usually 3-4 weeks after, presumably before Summer kicks in.