Ever since Windows 10 was released back in 2015,
Microsoft has had it on a semi annual update schedule
where they would release a major feature update every spring
and fall typically.
But apparently that's going to be changing this fall,
which is terrible news for me because all my major
Windows Update videos always do really well.
But for everyone else, including you,
that's probably a good thing.
That they're changing the schedule and we're going to go
over how they're changing it and why it's good.
I think. So how do we know that Microsoft is
very likely going to be changing the update schedule for
Windows 10?
And the answer is that they've already changed how they
released Windows Insider Preview builds to Insiders.
Now, if you didn't know the Windows Insider program,
it's basically just like you can sign up to receive
beta builds for Windows and then you kind of can
give bug feedback and that sort of thing.
You're kind of like a beta tester.
I would not recommend that for your main build,
obviously, because it can be very buggy.
That's another story, but up until recently how it works
worked was there were two different speeds for release in
this insider build.
There was the fast ring and the slow ring,
and what would happen is the fast ring would get
the major update that usually is every six months.
They would get that six months early.
So the one that would be in the fall,
they'd get it in the spring.
And then after all the initial really big bugs and
stuff would work out after about 3 months in the
summer,
then the slow ring would get the update like 3
months early before the final release and then the final
release would be that.
But this time around the Insider Fast ring got an
update that was a full year in advance and this
is codenamed
20H1. So 2020 half one
and the Slow ring actually got an update in the
summer that is only a minor update that is scheduled
for the fall of this year.
So the fast ring is getting this major update that's
a year ahead of time and completely skipping this minor
update that's going to be in the fall.
While the slow ring got this minor update that's going
to be released in the fall and it's Co named
19H2. So the second-half 2019,
now I had heard rumors that Microsoft was going to
be changing their
the annual twice a year update schedule for Windows 10
for a while now.
And it does seem like with this implementation of this
new release schedule for the Insiders that that is likely
going to happen.
So what's likely going to happen,
it seems like is that there's going to be every
six months,
there's still going to be an update,
but one of them in the spring is going to
be the major one and then the one in the
fall is going to be the minor feature update.
And then of course, as usual,
there's going to be security patches spread throughout the year
and there's not going to be any delays on the
security patches.
Of course. Now, I do think that the this would
be a much better schedule.
I think it seems like twice a year might be
too fast for Microsoft.
I mean, every time there's a major update,
it seems like there's something that goes wrong.
I mean, there was that catastrophe with
some folders being completely deleted by the Windows Update.
I mean that was like the worst
I've ever heard of. And then there's all these other
bugs,
like I've installed updates where it would break steam,
it would break certain programs I was using like Adobe
or like Camtasia screen recorder.
Something would always break and that's why I do not
update the major updates right away.
I have my computer on like a 60 day delay
every time and I still have not installed the
2019 May update on my main computer yet.
Because of this I'm thinking,
you know, it might break something.
I don't really have any features that I absolutely need,
so I'm not going to bother yet.
And I do think that this will allow a lot
more bugs to be worked out.
If they're not releasing them so quickly,
they'll have a little bit more time to work on
the bugs and think things through.
And I don't know how this is going to come
into play with the minor updates,
whether they're going to be still feature updates,
just not as big ones,
or maybe the minor update will be like patches on
the big one,
I don't know. Hopefully they'll have that sorted out earlier
than having to wait six months for the patches.
But still though, I do wonder how this is going
to to affect Microsoft overall master plan of basically turning
Windows into a service.
They've kind of been doing this since the beginning of
Windows 10,
I believe that was the original plan was to make
it so instead of releasing a major version of Windows
every five years or so,
they would just kind of continuously improve it.
And I think that still could be on track with
this new major update once a year and then a
minor update every six months.
But it does seem like this is going to be
more like their traditional service pack update schedule that they
had before Windows 10.
Like with Windows 7, there was like a couple service
packs for each one.
And if it does have a five year shelf life
in the 1st place for the previous versions,
then you know every year is not so far off
every two years.
So it's almost kind of like they're just going back
to what they were doing before.
So maybe they'll have just a couple major,
major features, and then they'll still have a good number
of features,
but still kind of call it a minor update.
And I also think the whole difference between a major
and minor update has to do with how long it
takes to install and the complications involved in installing.
Because as you know, when you install one of the
major updates,
it typically requires you to spend more time restarting it
and it takes longer to install.
Whereas I believe these minor updates are going to be
more like
a quick install that you don't even really notice.
So we'll have to see how that plays out.
Of course, I am a bit concerned that even if
they do have more time to spend on these updates,
are they going to even use that extra time to
properly get all the bugs out?
Or is it just going to be even worse every
year where they don't properly bug fix everything and then
you'll end up just having twice as many bugs that
are twice as big because they compressed releasing them all
at once?
I don't know, Hopefully that's not the case,
but you never know with Microsoft.
In any case, I just wanted to give you guys
this update.
So in the next couple months,
if you see, hey, I wonder if the next big
Windows Update is going to have anything cool,
then you might be having to wait a little bit
longer.
And of course, I'll probably still make updates on Windows
every six months
in the case that they released some stuff.
That's pretty cool, even if it's not a major update.
If it's still worth talking about,
I'll still make a video about it.
So let me know what you think of this.
Do Windows updates usually break your computer?
Do they usually work fine with no problems?
I'd be interested to hear what you guys think down
in the comments.
If you want to keep watching,
I'll put some other videos right here you can just
click on.
I make a couple of new videos a week,
so it should be worth it to subscribe.
So thanks so much for watching guys.
I'll see you next time.
Have a good one.