Microsoft has quietly revised its Windows 10 upgrade timetable, with the OS slated to receive two feature upgrades annually instead of the three that was previously advertised. In addition to saving time for home users, this should make the lives of IT departments and third-party developers marginally easier.
During a recent conference about Windows 10’s servicing strategy in Taiwan, Microsoft confirmed it will be scaling back the number of upgrades to two per year. Previously, the company had told customers to expect three major upgrades per year.
This means that new capabilities and features will only be rolled out every six months. This simpler timetable is sure to cause fewer deployment headaches for IT departments who work with large fleets of Windows 10 PCs. It should also help to ensure that each major upgrade is actually worthwhile.
At the same conference, Microsoft also explained how the new upgrade schedule will work. Upgrade builds will only be offered to consumers and “Current Branch” (CB) business customers for the first four months. They will then be offered to businesses on the regular “Current Branch for Business” (CBB) release track.
Each build will be supported for 14 months after hitting the wild. Businesses will then need to migrate to the next build if they want to keep receiving security updates and patches. The next upgrade build is expected to ship in July 29, with most businesses receiving notifications four months after.
We think most users will welcome this news. Provided everything is working as it should, having to install fewer major upgrades over the life cycle of an OS is surely a good thing. Tell us what you think in the comments.
[Via Computer World]
Comments
2 responses to “Windows 10 Will Now Get Two Major Uprades Per Year”
This is welcome news since they have gotten rid of service packs. Having to download one big update or maybe a two if there are prerequisites beats having to download 400 small ones.
I know Microsoft say they’ve “got rid of service packs”, but a regular large release to Windows that incorporates all hotfixes released prior to it looks and smells very much like a service pack to me.
Really they’ve changed their release schedule so it’s more regular (6 months vs approximately annually for old-school service packs) and now include new features in the updates (service packs were never supposed to be feature releases, but they sometimes did).
They’ve also shortened their support for people who refuse to update. Which will be a royal pain for some organizations, and a godsend for others.
Given they still do hotfixes on a regular basis, I’m calling BS on the claim that this will mean “having to install fewer major upgrades over the life cycle of an OS”