Windows 10 Builds 17723 & 18204 - Headstart on RS6
On July 25th - MS released two Windows 10 builds - build 17723 (RS5_Release) to Fast Ring Insiders and 18204 (RS_PreRelease) to Skip Ahead Insiders.
While both builds were identical in terms of their contents - the 18204 build indicates the beginning of the 19H1 or Redstone 6 branch as far as Insiders are concerned.
So in effect the development "window" for 19H1 is going to be effectively 9 months if MS sticks to current release rhythm. So not sure if this means we will get a much larger feature set in 19H1 or if MS is just hedging to insure a clean release which has been a bit of an issue (re: 1803).
As mentioned both builds were identical and contained nearly 40 fixes, plus some unique feature adds like the "mixed reality flashlight", the Emoji 11 collection, some time accuracy updates and kiosk mode updates. So many features that the vast majority of folks will never use.
I configured all 3 of my test machines for Skip Ahead - so all upgraded to 18204.
From an install perspective - again my simplest configuration - a plain desktop with no touch, pen or hello features updated quickly and easily. My laptop has some struggles on reboot and I had to re-request the update and my tablet failed several times include a GSOD post update around the same "Attempted Switch from DPC" error it has been experiencing recently. Eventually I got all 3 running.
One change I also made and recommend to Insiders it to turn off the Delivery Optimization feature in Update & security settings. I noticed my machines struggling to get the update from their peer machines.
The real question for RS6 will be if Windows Sets makes a return. This feature was pulled from RS5 due some app compatibility issues and MS even sent out survey requests to Insiders asking about their experiences and interest in Sets.
For me I'm still not 100% on the value and especially support for 3rd party apps. To me there is a long level of effort to get that capability seamless enough that MS would perform a large scale release. So while we may see round 3 of Sets in RS6 - it might get pulled again before release.
Another little interesting note was the reference to 19H1 instead of 1903 in the announcement. So not 100% yet if MS will consider a release any time in the first half of 2019 - therefore H1.
So for now it's just a waiting game on the RS5 release. If MS does stick to normal schedule that means we are still at least 2 months away so a build number somewhere in the high 17700s.
To be honest - I've been an Insider since the program inception in Oct of 2014 - so approaching 4 years now and it's getting old. And while Windows 10 has definitely improved over that 4 years - the incremental improvements are getting smaller while the legacy chum still hangs on.
We are approaching 6 years now since MS introduced what they described as the "Modern UI" with Windows 8 and yet there is still way too much reliance on legacy UI components and apps (i.e. Control Panel, Windows Accessories and Admin Tools) that make Windows appear like a hot mess and not modern at all.
Combine that with the disaster that MS Edge is and consistently changing update, patch and deployment scenarios, and no wonder over 43% of all PCs are still running Windows 7 nearly 9 years later and MS can't seem to kill it.
While both builds were identical in terms of their contents - the 18204 build indicates the beginning of the 19H1 or Redstone 6 branch as far as Insiders are concerned.
So in effect the development "window" for 19H1 is going to be effectively 9 months if MS sticks to current release rhythm. So not sure if this means we will get a much larger feature set in 19H1 or if MS is just hedging to insure a clean release which has been a bit of an issue (re: 1803).
As mentioned both builds were identical and contained nearly 40 fixes, plus some unique feature adds like the "mixed reality flashlight", the Emoji 11 collection, some time accuracy updates and kiosk mode updates. So many features that the vast majority of folks will never use.
I configured all 3 of my test machines for Skip Ahead - so all upgraded to 18204.
From an install perspective - again my simplest configuration - a plain desktop with no touch, pen or hello features updated quickly and easily. My laptop has some struggles on reboot and I had to re-request the update and my tablet failed several times include a GSOD post update around the same "Attempted Switch from DPC" error it has been experiencing recently. Eventually I got all 3 running.
One change I also made and recommend to Insiders it to turn off the Delivery Optimization feature in Update & security settings. I noticed my machines struggling to get the update from their peer machines.
The real question for RS6 will be if Windows Sets makes a return. This feature was pulled from RS5 due some app compatibility issues and MS even sent out survey requests to Insiders asking about their experiences and interest in Sets.
For me I'm still not 100% on the value and especially support for 3rd party apps. To me there is a long level of effort to get that capability seamless enough that MS would perform a large scale release. So while we may see round 3 of Sets in RS6 - it might get pulled again before release.
Another little interesting note was the reference to 19H1 instead of 1903 in the announcement. So not 100% yet if MS will consider a release any time in the first half of 2019 - therefore H1.
So for now it's just a waiting game on the RS5 release. If MS does stick to normal schedule that means we are still at least 2 months away so a build number somewhere in the high 17700s.
To be honest - I've been an Insider since the program inception in Oct of 2014 - so approaching 4 years now and it's getting old. And while Windows 10 has definitely improved over that 4 years - the incremental improvements are getting smaller while the legacy chum still hangs on.
We are approaching 6 years now since MS introduced what they described as the "Modern UI" with Windows 8 and yet there is still way too much reliance on legacy UI components and apps (i.e. Control Panel, Windows Accessories and Admin Tools) that make Windows appear like a hot mess and not modern at all.
Combine that with the disaster that MS Edge is and consistently changing update, patch and deployment scenarios, and no wonder over 43% of all PCs are still running Windows 7 nearly 9 years later and MS can't seem to kill it.
Comments
Post a Comment