Microsoft fixes Windows 10 upgrade tempo and timing to placate enterprises

[CrAKeN]

 

Microsoft yesterday announced it will target March and September as the launch months for all upcoming Windows 10 feature upgrades, a return to regularity that has been demanded by enterprise customers.

 

"We've ... heard our customers want more predictability and simplicity from [the Windows 10] update servicing model to help make deployments and updates of Microsoft products easier," said Bernardo Caldas, general manager of Windows marketing, in a Thursday post to a company blog.

 

To make that happen, Caldas said, Microsoft is committing to a twice-annual release schedule for the operating system's feature upgrades, and will aim for code finalization and launch in March and September -- six-month intervals.

Windows 10's most recent upgrade, labeled "Creators Update" as well as 1703 -- the latter in Microsoft's yymm format -- was initially available April 5 and began reaching some customers via Windows Update on April 11. Under the new schedule, the year's second feature upgrade should appear in or around September.

 

"This is crucial," said Wes Miller, analyst with Directions on Microsoft, of the new scheduling assurances. "When we've been talking to enterprises, these are key pain points, the unpredictability and irregularity of updates."

 

Before Windows 10's mid-2015 debut, Microsoft referred to a clockwork-style schedule that would deliver a new version every four months, or three times a year. Those using the to-be-retired version would be required to upgrade to continue receiving security patches. But as the company struggled to meet that tempo and received pushback from customers, it adjusted to a slower cadence, retreating from the thrice-yearly cadence to, in 2015, two releases, and in the following year, just one. It has set two upgrades for 2017.

 

That uncertainty -- would Microsoft ship one upgrade, two or more, and when? -- was a sore point for Microsoft's commercial customers, its most important and most lucrative by far. "From an enterprise perspective, predictability is always key," said Michael Silver of Gartner in a Friday interview.

 

Deploying a new version of Windows -- even Windows 10 feature upgrades, which contain fewer changes than did earlier edition upgrades -- takes planning, stretches resources and costs money. Without a clear idea when an upgrade would appear, enterprises would constantly be surprised, and waste months they needed to conduct the roll-out.

 

Microsoft' Caldas also reiterated that each Windows 10 feature upgrade "will be serviced and supported for 18 months." Microsoft has been pledging a year-and-a-half support lifecycle for some time -- it was an increase from Microsoft's pre-launch promise of only 12 months -- but the timetable had not been well-promoted or well-communicated. Caldas put it front and center.

 

The 18 months of support will make it "easier for customers to skip a release," said Silver. "Of course, organizations may still have to guess which releases are more important to them, or more compelling or better supported by third-party developers."

 

Directions on Microsoft's Miller echoed Silver by also applauding the 18 months of support. That means "businesses might be able to skip a release," Miller said, even as he acknowledged that many Microsoft customers have held out hope for an even longer stretch. "Enterprises would rather not have to touch every device every 18 months or less," Miller added, "but that's what they'll have to do to work with Windows 10 going forward."

 

Most enterprise PCs running Windows 10 won't have 18 months on a specific version, however. Microsoft uses the first 4 months of that span to distribute the upgrade to consumers -- essentially for additional testing -- before certifying it as suitable for commercial systems. And while it will be possible to skip a Windows 10 upgrade, companies may find themselves pressed for time to get the next deployed before the one they're currently running exits support and stops receiving security patches.

 

Under Microsoft's 18-month support lifecycle, Windows 10 1703 will drop off the list in October 2018, while September's upgrade -- call it 1709 -- will be patched until March 2019.

 

Source

[Karlston]

Woody's take...

 

Microsoft switches to twice-yearly Windows 10 update plan (InfoWorld - Woody Leonhard)

 

Looks like the Microsoft geniuses didn't noticed that March is tax time in the US.

 

Less time for the developers to fix bugs means... The new and improved Windows 10 feature updates... now with more bugs... and more often.

[SoftChip]

A PC is not an iPhone! Microsoft did not get that memo...

[csmdew]

6 hours ago, Karlston said:

Woody's take...

 

Microsoft switches to twice-yearly Windows 10 update plan (InfoWorld - Woody Leonhard)

 

Looks like the Microsoft geniuses didn't noticed that March is tax time in the US.

 

Less time for the developers to fix bugs means... The new and improved Windows 10 feature updates... now with more bugs... and more often.

Wrong, tax time is mid April every year, never been march in my lifetime and I have great grand kids. 

[straycat19]

On 4/22/2017 at 2:56 PM, Karlston said:

Woody's take...

 

Microsoft switches to twice-yearly Windows 10 update plan (InfoWorld - Woody Leonhard)

 

Looks like the Microsoft geniuses didn't noticed that March is tax time in the US.

 

Looks like they didn't take the University/College schedule into consideration either.  March is the time when all the final term projects are wrapping up, the flurry of exams prior to the finals (many colleges don't allow pop quizzes, etc in April prior to the final exams so they have a bunch in March) and September is at the very start of the school year when school IT departments don't dare mess with the systems.  Universities/Colleges do their updates/upgrades during the winter break (15 DEC - 2 JAN) and during the summer break (8 MAY - 7 AUG), with the summer break being the major time and the winter break only for something that can't wait till summer.  Microsoft is so damn stupid that their CEO was unable to find his ass with both hands, a map, and a seeing eye dog.  They ought to do updates once a year in the summer when large organizations across the board would have more time to do them and a more flexible schedule.  We use to always do the updates on IBM AS/400 servers in the summer since they had to be down for roughly 24 hours just to run the update and companies were more acceptable to doing them at that time.

[Karlston]

20 hours ago, csmdew said:

Wrong, tax time is mid April every year, never been march in my lifetime and I have great grand kids.

 

Around April 15 is the deadline for filing it.

 

I'm sure that many start preparing it earlier, in March, instead of leaving it to the last minute.

 

I wonder if the IRS will accept the excuse "The March Windows 10 Feature Update ate my Tax Return."?

 

(Had to look it up, here in Oz we have until end of September for our financial year July 1 to June 30.)

[steven36]

1 hour ago, Karlston said:

I'm sure that many start preparing it earlier, in March, instead of leaving it to the last minute.

It depends if you are eligible for a refund are not  , people who get money back file it as soon as possible when they get there forms from work which has an annual due date of January 31, some even rapid refund  it back in one day..People who have too pay taxes in because they made too much money hold it off  as long as they can .