Windows 10 'Semiannual Channel Targeted' Goes Away This (Northern Hemisphere) Spring

[Karlston]

Microsoft plans to slightly alter its Windows servicing lingo and management behavior with its next Windows 10 operating system feature update release, coming this spring.

 

At that time, Microsoft will drop its "semiannual channel (targeted)" (SAC-T) milestone for IT pros. The SAC-T designation, which is kind of deployment-phase marker, will disappear from system settings after Windows 10 version 1903 gets deployed by organizations, according to John Wilcox, a contributor to Microsoft Tech Community sites, in Microsoft's Thursday announcement. Wilcox had floated a partial description of these plans back in June.

 

This change will happen with Windows 10 version 1903, where the "19" indicates the year "2019" and "03" suggests the month. However, Windows 10 feature updates typically arrive one month later than the digits suggest, so the change likely will show up in April of this year.

 

After organizations deploy Windows 10 version 1903, they'll no longer see the SAC-T designation under Settings, Wilcox explained. SAC-T won't be seen by Windows Update for Business users, as well as users of System Center Configuration Manager and Windows Server Update Services, nor will it appear for organizations using "other management tools," he said.  

 

Wilcox has previously argued that SAC-T was only relevant for users of the Windows Update for Business management scheme. Windows Update for Business is a collection of Microsoft technologies that lets IT pros use Group Policy settings to manage Windows 10 updates.

 

The SAC-T release was supposed to be a signal for IT pros to begin testing the Windows 10 feature update with a small group of end users in so-called "testing rings" before broadly deploying the new OS across an organization. In practice, though, organizations mostly just waited to deploy the SAC release that followed an SAC-T release, Wilcox previously noted.

 

Even though SAC-T will be going away, Wilcox said in the announcement that SAC-T "really is the actual release date" of Windows 10.

 

With the new behavior, Windows Update for Business users will just see the "SAC" designation, going forward, instead of SAC-T. Any deployment deferral settings that had been made by Windows Update for Business users will stay in effect, Wilcox promised.

 

In contrast, organizations that had timed their deployments on Windows 10 SAC releases, typically using tools like System Center Configuration Manager or Windows Server Update Services, will get a slightly altered update deferral experience after deploying Windows 10 version 1903. Microsoft plans to add "60 days to the configured deferral" for these SAC followers, Wilcox said.

 

Wilcox attributed the nomenclature change to Microsoft's need to align Windows Update for Business with Office deployment cycles. Office and Windows 10 both have channels update models. Apparently, SAC-T for Windows 10 was an exception.

 

For those needing more background information on this confusing change, Microsoft typically releases two main Windows 10 feature updates each year, which arrive in the spring and fall and have version numbers. From an OS deployment standpoint, these Windows 10 feature updates are called "semiannual channel" (SAC) releases by Microsoft. Under the current scheme, an SAC-T release would arrive before an SAC release, and would signal a time for organizations to test the new OS, and deploy it if it was deemed ready. But SAC-T will now get dropped.

 

However, Wilcox today said that the SAC-T release is Microsoft's actual OS release phase. Microsoft seems to have shifted its channel descriptions over time (which used to be called "branches"), and perhaps is doing some sort of simplification in this case, but it's been a confusing ride over the years.

 

This particular change mostly will be notable for Windows Update for Business users, though, Wilcox suggested.

 

Source: Windows 10 'Semiannual Channel Targeted' Goes Away This (Northern Hemisphere) Spring (Redmond magazine)

 

(Poster's note: I added "(Northern Hemisphere)" to the titles to correct the title for Southern Hemisphere readers).

[Karlston]

What this means, if anything, for Home and Pro users is unclear. Woody Leonhard has some more information on AskWoody.com...

 

Win10 updating terminology is changing again – but this time maybe it’s tied to a major improvement (AskWoody - Woody Leonhard)

 

One interesting speculation by Woody is that it may mean that Windows 10 Feature releases are going to a more sensible one release per year.

[The AchieVer]

Microsoft Makes New (And Confusing) Changes to Windows Update 

Microsoft has announced a new change for Windows Update for Business that may not be received well by system administrators.

The company says it’s killing off the Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted) option with the release of Windows 10 version 1903, allowing businesses to manually choose an update deferral setting on their own.

Right now, in the latest stable version of Windows 10, which is the October 2018 Update (version 1809), Microsoft provides businesses with two different options called Semi-Annual Channel and Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted), the latter also being referred to as SAC-T.

Basically, the first option is the one that refers to the release date of feature updates for consumers, and businesses can choose to receive updates at the same time as consumers, But because additional testing might be necessary, SAC-T makes it possible for businesses to delay the update until Microsoft flags a specific Windows 10 feature update as ready for businesses.Changes coming into effect in AprilBeginning with Windows 10 version 1903, this second option will be gone, and Microsoft says the whole approach is simplified because businesses can delay updates using options available in Windows Update.

“Once your organization’s devices have been updated to Windows 10, version 1903, the configuration of Windows Update for Business will be simpler, enabling you to choose a single deferral value based solely on the SAC release date. That means, if you are trying to set up validation flights in your environment using Windows Update for Business, or stage updates in waves, you will do so from a common release start date, which should simplify the deployment process overall,” John Wilcox of Microsoft says.

However, the biggest drawback of this new approach is that Microsoft would no longer provide businesses with the right timing to install Windows updates on their devices.

Sure, they can delay updates using the available options, but SAC-T previously allowed them to determine the right moment when a specific update was considered to be ready for business deployment.

The changes will come into effect after Windows 10 version 1903 ships in April, and you can read the full technical details in the announcement linked above.

 

 

 

Source

[Karlston]

Microsoft dismantles its update naming scheme again, leaves unanswered questions

With the announcement Thursday that Microsoft will no longer use the “Semi-Annual Channel Targeted” mumbo-jumbo, we’re left with dozens of key questions, terminology be damned. Just when are we supposed to believe a new version of Win10 is safe?

Thinkstock/Microsoft

Late Thursday, John Wilcox – who’s become something of a lightning rod for unpopular Microsoft pronouncements – laid to waste the fiction of “Current Branch for Business,” which is now called “Semi-Annual Channel.” In his Windows IT Pro blog called Windows Update for Business and the retirement of SAC-T, he says:

In my post last May on Windows 10 and the “disappearing” SAC-T, I explained how we simplified and aligned our Windows servicing terminology with Office, reflecting that there are two Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) releases each year. I also explained that with Windows, there was never actually a Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted), or SAC-T, release; rather, SAC-T merely reflected a milestone for the semi-annual release…

Beginning with Windows 10, version 1903 (the next feature update for Windows 10), the Windows 10 release information page will no longer list SAC-T information for version 1903 and future feature updates. Instead, you will find a single entry for each new SAC release…

There will now only be one feature update published to WSUS [the update server], and this will occur at the time of release.

The first part I get – the SAC-T emperor never had any clothes, and it took Microsoft three years to admit it. Fair enough. The last part, though, has me scratching my head. What it says, to a first approximation, is that Microsoft will dump its new versions of Windows 10 without a clear “it’s ready now” announcement.

 

Or, if you like, the first appearance of a new version is all the announcement you're gonna get – take it or leave it.

 

This is the same Microsoft, mind you, that released Win10 version 1809, which proceeded to permanently delete data, freeze machines, and cause so much mayhem it was withdrawn and re-worked for six months – and which, to this day, is not yet declared “Semi-Annual Channel,” i.e., fit for installation on business computers.

 

If new versions of Win10 rolled off the twice-a-year assembly line in anything close to usable condition, the elimination of the SAC-T step would be met with yawns and snores. As it stands, though, everybody – Home users, Pro, Enterprise, Education –  everybody gets tossed into the beta testing cauldron.

 

As @b put it on AskWoody:

 

Later this year all business users will be unpaid beta testers too.

If you’re running Win10 Pro you can still defer upgrades. In the past, though, the upgrade deferral setting related to the branch you set. By starting at the Current Branch for Business (later Semi-Annual Channel) level, you could tell Windows Update to keep its mitts off for a pre-determined number of days. In the future, you don’t have that baseline: The countdown starts when Microsoft pushes the new version, not when it declares that the new version is fit for businesses.

 

Even the Windows Update advanced options settings are changed. According to Wilcox, starting with version 1903, the settings will look like this:

 

Microsoft

A look at how the Windows Update advanced options settings are changed.

That particular screen came as quite a surprise. In my copy of the latest beta version of Win10 Pro build 18834.1, the advanced options settings don’t look anything like those in the screenshot. Wilcox says: “Devices enrolled in the Windows Insider Program; however, can already see these changes.” It ain’t true on my test machine.

 

Lots of questions immediately present themselves, and they can’t be resolved by simply changing the obfuscatory nomenclature once again. The big question is, simply, “How will we know when it’s safe to install a new version?”

 

Simple question. I don’t see any answer.

 

Susan Bradley put it succinctly when, replying to Wilcox’s post, she said:

 

While the naming of the CBB/SacT was confusing, the fact [remains] that all businesses still want a date when we can deem that we're past the beta testing phase of these releases… We still need a time in the sand [when] we can all trust your releases… Work on that… And may I say this just makes it more confusing, not less.

As is usual with Windows 10 naming changes, we have no idea what’s going on – and one has to wonder if anyone else does.

 

Help us compare notes on the AskWoody Lounge.

 

Source: Microsoft dismantles its update naming scheme again, leaves unanswered questions (Computerworld - Woody Leonhard)

[Reefa]

Threads merged..

[Karlston]

Microsoft shoves some Windows 10 testers into next year with early look at 2020 feature upgrade

The company pointed to a 'longer lead time' for some of the features in the far-off upgrade, which isn't expected to arrive until the spring of 2020.

Rouzes / Getty Images

Microsoft on Friday took the unprecedented step of skipping one of its Windows 10 feature upgrades when it began distributing a preview of the first 2020 update to the most daring testing volunteers.

 

Usually, as one feature upgrade nears release, Microsoft starts giving some Windows Insider participants - those who opted for the "Skip Ahead" channel - a look at the following feature upgrade. Currently, Microsoft is getting close to wrapping up 2019's first upgrade, which will almost certainly be labeled "Windows 10 April 2019 Update" and carry the numeric tag of 1903. In its now-standard practice, it would soon begin giving Skip Ahead testers the code for this fall's upgrade, aka 1909 and likely named "Windows 10 October 2019 Update."

 

That's not what Microsoft did this time.

 

"Today we are releasing a new build to Insiders who have opted into Skip Ahead," wrote Dona Sarkar and Brandon LeBlanc, members of the Insider team, in a post to a company blog. "These builds are from the 20H1 development branch. Some things we are working on in 20H1 require a longer lead time."

 

20H1, which stands for 2020's spring feature upgrade - 2003 in Microsoft's own yymm format - would not typically see light until August or September of this year, as 1909 nears completion.

 

The "longer lead time" explanation from Microsoft was vague by virtue of the fact that the company has not named any new features or functionality expected to debut in the 2003 upgrade, nor has it yet included any in the Spring Ahead build. The phrase implied that elements were more complicated than usual, more important or both. One possible culprit: Sets, an ambitious user interface (UI) project that the company pulled from testing in mid-2018 but promised would eventually return to Insider betas.

 

It was unclear whether the jump-ahead would become a fixture of Insider to lengthen the time changes would be tested or if this is a one-off.

 

Sarkar and LeBlanc added that later this spring, Insider participants - presumably those who have opted for the Fast release ring and not volunteered for Skip Ahead - would receive updates previewing the 1909 feature upgrade. Those in the Skip Ahead group will likely continue receiving 2003 rather than be switched to 1909 - otherwise, what would be the point of jumping into 2020 at all?

 

Odd, too, is the use of a spring feature upgrade for such a move, as Microsoft recently demoted the first update of each year to second-fiddle status by retaining 18 months for their support lifecycles while extending support for each fall's upgrade to 30 months for customers running Windows 10 Enterprise. When Microsoft altered support that way last September, some industry experts expected that most businesses would forgo the spring upgrades entirely because of their shorter support.

 

Unless Microsoft modifies 1903's release schedule because of the debacle that resulted in a months'-long delay to its 1809 predecessor, the April 2019 Update should start reaching users' PCs in mid-April, or in about two months.

 

Source: Microsoft shoves some Windows 10 testers into next year with early look at 2020 feature upgrade (Computerworld - Gregg Keizer)