Windows 10 Build 16288 - An important but painful update

On Sept 12, MS released Windows 10 Build 16288 to Fast Ring Insiders.  It was both an important and painful update.

 The build itself like all the recent builds was full of bug fixes - this time to the Shell, Input Methods, Edge, Gaming and Devices along with a few odds and ends.

 The build also removed the rs3.release watermark and is identified as a 1709 Version of Windows 10 - so a true Fall Creators Update build.  MS was quick to call out that this is NOT the release build and that there is still work to do.  But it is certainly close..

 Unfortunately there was also some pain with this release.  While it downloaded and installed fine on my lowly Dell Venue 8 Pro it would not install on my new Intel NUC.  

 As many Insiders experienced - Windows Update would "find" the new build - but almost immediately fail stating "An update is being prepared for your device, but it's not quite ready yet. We'll keep trying or you can try again now" and then display a Retry button

 The feedback hub was flooded with this complaint and a few hours after the announcement MS Tweeted out that yep - they had a blocking problem with 16288 and were working on a fix...

 After several hours some updates came out that they had found the issue and that it should be available in about 2 hrs.  Unfortunately that didn't pan out and finally notifications came out to please wait until 5P PT today 9/13 to try and update.   

 For me I was able to get the update on my NUC at about 1:30 PT today. 

 The updates for me are still slow - taking nearly an hour on a Core i7 CPU with NVMe SSD.  While the download portion is relatively quick, the initialization, and installation phases within Windows Update are slow.

 As far as the bug fixes are concerned I haven't experienced any of the issues they called out - so no real comments there.

 My guess is we are two build releases away from Production.   One late this week and one mid-next week.  I could be wrong - but I think that in order for MS OEM Partners to have product ready for the official release date of Oct 17 - they need the production release build very soon.  

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