Windows 10 - Build 10547 - The Real Windows 10 begins to appear
On September 18, MS released Windows 10 Build 10547. This is part of what is being called the "Threshold 2" release of Windows 10. Some in the press are calling this the true Windows 10 release as it will coincide with MS's "Big Bang" announcement coming up on Oct 6.
Big Bang will be the announcement of the Surface 4 Tablet as well as two new phones - so MS's first Windows 10 specific devices. There will also be a number of formal announcements from other OEM partners, like HP, Dell, Lenovo and others regarding their Windows 10 target devices to capture holiday sales.
So on to the build itself. As always I loaded 10547 on a couple of desktop machines a laptop and a tablet device. Versus recent builds - the download process was much faster and the upgrade process also seemed a bit quicker.
The build also seemed to to include more MS native Windows 10 apps than previous builds - so you didn't spend as much time in the Store afterwards updating apps. But that also meant having to relaunch apps and initialize them.
With my tablet - it did not recognize the availability of the th2_professional 10547 in Windows Update. Several attempts to correct the issue including deleting and re-adding my MS account did not impact availability and I even performed a full system reset on 10536 - but still no luck until yesterday when I just went into Settings and checked for updates and there it was. So not sure if was a back-end issue on MS's side or what - but eventually got there.
When you compare 10547 to the RTM version of Windows 10 10240 released back in July it is a much more polished version of the OS and much more MS-like. Meaning it feels finished and things work - 10240 did not feel that way at all and to me raised a lot of red flags.
But the challenge I see is that if you are not a part of Windows Insider and get Fast Ring updates - when are you going to see this goodness. As far as I can tell - while MS has provided some cumulative updates they did include all of the updates you see in 10547. Hopefully there will be a major cumulative update on or about Oct 6 that will bring the RTM folks up to speed..
Many of the app issues I had complained about over the last several months seemed to have been fixed. For example Maps and Location Services now work correctly and find my location exactly. The MSN apps now load correctly and the live tiles update properly. I have not had any of the apps crash so far. Store updates also seem more consistent and slightly faster.
I am actually starting to like the new Groove Music. While it still does not get some album artwork correctly and shows some duplicate albums with varying versions (i.e. International Version or Expanded Version) it's better than it has ever been... My H.264 encoded videos all play fine with good picture and sound.
Photos and One Drive also seem to work correctly. I will say though that One Drive's approach of all or nothing with folder sync may require some folks to rethink and reorganize their One Drive folders to avoid overloading their local storage. My Camera role for example is about 5GB and contains nearly 900 photos - so every time I install a new build and re-sync it's painful. I am also very thankful that I did not take MS's recommendation and place my 2TB of Music and 6TB of movies into One Drive.
I'm still not 100% sold on Edge yet and MS still includes IE 11 in the Windows accessory folder. With that said I always end up installing Chrome. This tells me that Edge is still a work in progress and MS has included IE as a back up plan for legacy support. But that's not very confidence inspiring when I can use solution like Chrome.
MS has expanded the start menu width - now allowing 4 columns of icons - but I still feel that earlier versions of the Windows 10 start menu that would allow for dynamic and custom sizing was superior that the current version.
I'm also not a fan of tablet mode. Even on my tablet I still use desktop mode. I'm also surprised that MS has not provided the Bing picture of the day as a desktop background - only the lock screen - which most folks only see very limited times during the day.
So is Threshold 2 the real Windows 10 - I would have to say yes. it does inspire more confidence than RTM did back in July and I would feel more confident in recommending it to users. And so it raises the question of why wasn't a build like 10547 the RTM release. It reinforces my thoughts that it MS released Windows 10 too early and that they actually needed another 3 months of polishing...
With that said, many of the warnings that I documented starting back in May about OEM support and specific device support are still valid. You really need to do your due diligence on Windows 10 support for things like video cards, nics, sound cards, wifi/bluetooth before you make the leap.
Also as I have recommended - if your planning on upgrading to Windows 10 to provide a few additional years of life to your current PC, consider investing in a few small upgrades - like SSD and a DirectX 12 compatible video card to insure you have a good experience. You do not have to spend a tremendous amount of money on these upgrades - typically around $150 for a good quality 128GB SSD AND a DirectX 12 supported video card..
We are two weeks away from the MS Big Bang event and it will be interesting to see if we get one more TH2 build before the event and what MS announces and provides to users along with Surface 4 and Phones.
Big Bang will be the announcement of the Surface 4 Tablet as well as two new phones - so MS's first Windows 10 specific devices. There will also be a number of formal announcements from other OEM partners, like HP, Dell, Lenovo and others regarding their Windows 10 target devices to capture holiday sales.
So on to the build itself. As always I loaded 10547 on a couple of desktop machines a laptop and a tablet device. Versus recent builds - the download process was much faster and the upgrade process also seemed a bit quicker.
The build also seemed to to include more MS native Windows 10 apps than previous builds - so you didn't spend as much time in the Store afterwards updating apps. But that also meant having to relaunch apps and initialize them.
With my tablet - it did not recognize the availability of the th2_professional 10547 in Windows Update. Several attempts to correct the issue including deleting and re-adding my MS account did not impact availability and I even performed a full system reset on 10536 - but still no luck until yesterday when I just went into Settings and checked for updates and there it was. So not sure if was a back-end issue on MS's side or what - but eventually got there.
When you compare 10547 to the RTM version of Windows 10 10240 released back in July it is a much more polished version of the OS and much more MS-like. Meaning it feels finished and things work - 10240 did not feel that way at all and to me raised a lot of red flags.
But the challenge I see is that if you are not a part of Windows Insider and get Fast Ring updates - when are you going to see this goodness. As far as I can tell - while MS has provided some cumulative updates they did include all of the updates you see in 10547. Hopefully there will be a major cumulative update on or about Oct 6 that will bring the RTM folks up to speed..
Many of the app issues I had complained about over the last several months seemed to have been fixed. For example Maps and Location Services now work correctly and find my location exactly. The MSN apps now load correctly and the live tiles update properly. I have not had any of the apps crash so far. Store updates also seem more consistent and slightly faster.
I am actually starting to like the new Groove Music. While it still does not get some album artwork correctly and shows some duplicate albums with varying versions (i.e. International Version or Expanded Version) it's better than it has ever been... My H.264 encoded videos all play fine with good picture and sound.
Photos and One Drive also seem to work correctly. I will say though that One Drive's approach of all or nothing with folder sync may require some folks to rethink and reorganize their One Drive folders to avoid overloading their local storage. My Camera role for example is about 5GB and contains nearly 900 photos - so every time I install a new build and re-sync it's painful. I am also very thankful that I did not take MS's recommendation and place my 2TB of Music and 6TB of movies into One Drive.
I'm still not 100% sold on Edge yet and MS still includes IE 11 in the Windows accessory folder. With that said I always end up installing Chrome. This tells me that Edge is still a work in progress and MS has included IE as a back up plan for legacy support. But that's not very confidence inspiring when I can use solution like Chrome.
MS has expanded the start menu width - now allowing 4 columns of icons - but I still feel that earlier versions of the Windows 10 start menu that would allow for dynamic and custom sizing was superior that the current version.
I'm also not a fan of tablet mode. Even on my tablet I still use desktop mode. I'm also surprised that MS has not provided the Bing picture of the day as a desktop background - only the lock screen - which most folks only see very limited times during the day.
So is Threshold 2 the real Windows 10 - I would have to say yes. it does inspire more confidence than RTM did back in July and I would feel more confident in recommending it to users. And so it raises the question of why wasn't a build like 10547 the RTM release. It reinforces my thoughts that it MS released Windows 10 too early and that they actually needed another 3 months of polishing...
With that said, many of the warnings that I documented starting back in May about OEM support and specific device support are still valid. You really need to do your due diligence on Windows 10 support for things like video cards, nics, sound cards, wifi/bluetooth before you make the leap.
Also as I have recommended - if your planning on upgrading to Windows 10 to provide a few additional years of life to your current PC, consider investing in a few small upgrades - like SSD and a DirectX 12 compatible video card to insure you have a good experience. You do not have to spend a tremendous amount of money on these upgrades - typically around $150 for a good quality 128GB SSD AND a DirectX 12 supported video card..
We are two weeks away from the MS Big Bang event and it will be interesting to see if we get one more TH2 build before the event and what MS announces and provides to users along with Surface 4 and Phones.
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