Windows 10 - Redstone 5 Branch - A pretty bumpy ride
Windows 10 has entered it's 7th branch cycle - known as Redstone 5 (RS5). The build releases started back in February with 17604 for Skip Ahead members.
Since that time MS has performed 11 releases - most limited to Skip Ahead users and not until build 17661 did both Fast Ring and Skip Ahead receive the builds. The most recent being 17672 released May 16.
As I've documented in previous posts - the road so far has been pretty bumpy and 17672 was no exception.
I use 3 platforms as my testing pool. An Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet with an Intel Atom CPU, an HP Elitebook 745 G3 Laptop with AMD CPU and a Dell Inspiron 3847 Desktop with Intel Core i3.
Of the 3 only the Inspiron has been able to perform what I describe as relatively normal updates. The Elitebook and Venue have really struggled.
While all 3 suffered from the ridiculous "preparing to install" delays that came with builds 17661 and 17666 - I experienced multiple Green Screen of Death (GSOD) crashes on the Venue and horrible performance post update on the Elitebook.
The key feature of the RS5 branch is Windows Sets. While initially introduced during RS4 - it was pulled from the April 2018 release as it was not ready.
Skip Ahead folks and a limited number of Fast Ring Insiders get to see it and I've commented on the experience so far in previous posts.
Of my test machines - 1 is in Skip Ahead (Inspiron) with Sets Activated, 1 is in Fast Ring with Sets activated (Venue) and the HP is in Fast Ring but with Sets not activated.
I can't say 100% that the Sets related work is the cause of the issue - but regardless it has been ugly. Generating 10 or so posts to Feedback Hub and causing in some cases having to perform complete rebuilds of some machines back to 17134 (April 2018 release) and then starting over to try and get RS5 builds to install. And even then the updates are often painful.
I have to go all the way back to some of the early branches of Windows 10 - so like Threshold 2 (TH2) to compare the levels of instability and issues I'm experiencing now some 3 years later with RS5.
And to be honest I'm not sure the value I'm getting from RS5 is worth the effort. It's very difficult to test and provide valid feedback when your system is crashing when you click on the start menu or try to perform basic navigation.
While I can understand the approach with Sets - so far the potential impact and execution in RS5 has been horrible.
It is so frustrating in fact that twice I skipped builds hoping that the next would provide additional stability. So far that has not been my experience.
For my Venue 8 I am seriously considering simply returning to 17134 and pulling the machine out of the Insiders program all together. While I've been amazed at the ability of this originally Windows 8 targeted device to support progressive Windows 10 branches - it may be time to stop.
The Elitebook on the other hand is a different story. This is a circa 2016 device designed for Windows 10 and with 16GB of RAM, NVMe SSD and Intel 7265 WiFi. It should not be experiencing the kind of issues it has. Especially when you consider HP is one of MS's leading partners and this is a mainstream device. So in my opinion there is no excuse.
Bottom line is RS5 is ongoing but so far not much value to report.
Since that time MS has performed 11 releases - most limited to Skip Ahead users and not until build 17661 did both Fast Ring and Skip Ahead receive the builds. The most recent being 17672 released May 16.
As I've documented in previous posts - the road so far has been pretty bumpy and 17672 was no exception.
I use 3 platforms as my testing pool. An Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet with an Intel Atom CPU, an HP Elitebook 745 G3 Laptop with AMD CPU and a Dell Inspiron 3847 Desktop with Intel Core i3.
Of the 3 only the Inspiron has been able to perform what I describe as relatively normal updates. The Elitebook and Venue have really struggled.
While all 3 suffered from the ridiculous "preparing to install" delays that came with builds 17661 and 17666 - I experienced multiple Green Screen of Death (GSOD) crashes on the Venue and horrible performance post update on the Elitebook.
The key feature of the RS5 branch is Windows Sets. While initially introduced during RS4 - it was pulled from the April 2018 release as it was not ready.
Skip Ahead folks and a limited number of Fast Ring Insiders get to see it and I've commented on the experience so far in previous posts.
Of my test machines - 1 is in Skip Ahead (Inspiron) with Sets Activated, 1 is in Fast Ring with Sets activated (Venue) and the HP is in Fast Ring but with Sets not activated.
I can't say 100% that the Sets related work is the cause of the issue - but regardless it has been ugly. Generating 10 or so posts to Feedback Hub and causing in some cases having to perform complete rebuilds of some machines back to 17134 (April 2018 release) and then starting over to try and get RS5 builds to install. And even then the updates are often painful.
I have to go all the way back to some of the early branches of Windows 10 - so like Threshold 2 (TH2) to compare the levels of instability and issues I'm experiencing now some 3 years later with RS5.
And to be honest I'm not sure the value I'm getting from RS5 is worth the effort. It's very difficult to test and provide valid feedback when your system is crashing when you click on the start menu or try to perform basic navigation.
While I can understand the approach with Sets - so far the potential impact and execution in RS5 has been horrible.
It is so frustrating in fact that twice I skipped builds hoping that the next would provide additional stability. So far that has not been my experience.
For my Venue 8 I am seriously considering simply returning to 17134 and pulling the machine out of the Insiders program all together. While I've been amazed at the ability of this originally Windows 8 targeted device to support progressive Windows 10 branches - it may be time to stop.
The Elitebook on the other hand is a different story. This is a circa 2016 device designed for Windows 10 and with 16GB of RAM, NVMe SSD and Intel 7265 WiFi. It should not be experiencing the kind of issues it has. Especially when you consider HP is one of MS's leading partners and this is a mainstream device. So in my opinion there is no excuse.
Bottom line is RS5 is ongoing but so far not much value to report.
Comments
Post a Comment