Microsoft changes Windows 10’s update model

Enlarge / New changes to Windows' deployment policies will hopefully mean more time for testing and fewer chances for major public breakage. (credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft outlined new directions for Windows 10's update model in a pair of blog posts. It looks like the company is shifting its twice-annual major release cycle to a twice-annual major/minor release cycle, with major upgrades in spring and minor upgrades in the fall.

To understand the shift, you need to know a little about how Microsoft has released Windows 10 builds to date-and particularly, how they've released them to Windows Insiders. In short, Fast Ring subscribers are the first to get new features and updates. Slow Ring subscribers get those features before they're public but not until after the Fast Ring folks have had a while to flush out the worst of the bugs.

In the past, this meant Fast Ring customers got a new major Windows 10 build first, then Slow Ring customers got that same build after the first few servicing updates had been applied. What happened this year was different: Fast Ring insiders skipped 19H2 (fall 2019) entirely and went directly to 20H1 (spring 2020), and the Slow Ring never joined them at all.

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