Microsoft makes Windows 10 1903 available on MSDN

[The AchieVer]

Microsoft makes Windows 10 1903 available on MSDN

Surprise: Microsoft has made the Windows 10 1903 (May 2019 Update) and Windows Server 1903 bits available for download on MSDN, a month earlier than many were expecting.

 

 

 

On April 18, some tech pros began noticing that Microsoft had made its Windows 10 1903/May 2019 Update release available on MSDN for download. If Microsoft hadn't changed its Windows 10 servicing cadence a couple weeks ago, this would be business as usual. But, in early April, Microsoft officials said the plan was to make Windows 10 1903/May Update available to consumers and business users starting in late May, not in mid-April. 

From Microsoft's April 4 blog post about plans to change the Windows 10 update experience in the name of improved quality: 

"Our commercial customers can begin their targeted deployments in late May, which will mark the beginning of the 18-month servicing period for Windows 10, version 1903 in the Semi-Annual Channel. We recommend IT administrators start validating the apps, devices and infrastructure used by their organizations at that time to ensure that they work well with this release before broadly deploying. The May 2019 Update will be available in late May through Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), Windows Update for Business, the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) for phased deployment using System Center Configuration Manager or other systems management software." 

Microsoft's plans for 1903 was to give the "RTM" bits longer to bake in the Windows Insider Release Preview ring, as well as inside Microsoft, its OEM, and ISV partners before making the new bits available to mainstream customers. Microsoft pushed out the Windows 10 1903/May Update bits to Insider testers in Release Preview on April 8.

Officials said earlier this month that business customers would be able to start testing the commercially available 1903/May update internally in late May, and that Microsoft would use the late May date when it begins rollout as the start of the 18-month support period for Windows 10 1903. 

Yet now, on April 18, Windows 10 1903/May Update (Build 18362.30) and its Windows Server 1903 complement both showed up on MSDN for download, as noted by Tero Alhonen and WZor.NET on Twitter. The 1903/May Update bits are not yet available in the Evaluation Center or VLSC.

 

I contacted Microsoft officials to see if this was a mistake on its part or if Microsoft intended to make the coming release available a month or so ahead of schedule for those with MSDN subscriptions. Or maybe Microsoft's (unstated) intention was to get IT pros to start kicking the tires of the near-final Windows 10 1903/May Update in a controlled-pilot kind of way by putting the bits on MSDN? So far, no response form Microsoft on this.

 

Update: It's increasingly looking like this was not a mistake, but intentional. In early April, Microsoft officials never shared when they planned to release the 1903/May Update bits on MSDN. In the past, Microsoft usually released RTM bits to MSDN around the same time they went to VLSC and other "mainstream" business channels. But it looks like Microsoft is going with the literal definition of MSDN -- Microsoft Developer Network -- and not looking at it as a business/IT pro channel. And so 1903's release on MSDN is tied to the SDK release today.

 

Microsoft released the Windows 10 Software Development Kit (SDK) for the May 2019 Updateon April 18 with a "go-live" license and told developers they could start developing on the Windows 10 May 2019 Update now.

 

 

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[The AchieVer]

Windows 10 update version 1903: Act fast to delay this big upgrade

Each time Microsoft rolls out a major upgrade to Windows 10, you have the option to wait a few months before you install it on PCs running Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise. But you have to act quickly.

 

 

 

[Note: This article has been completely revised for the latest Windows 10 feature updates. This revision covers version 1903 and was last updated 25-March-2019.]

 

Sometime this month, Microsoft will finalize its next big feature update. If the company follows its longstanding practice, Windows Update servers will begin delivering the Windows 10 version 1903 update in April, to current installations of Windows 10 that have been running for at least 30 days.

 

This is the latest feature update in Microsoft's new twice-a-year release cadence, and you should view it with the skepticism any initial public release of a new Windows version deserves. In a business setting, that typically means delaying the upgrade for a few months while you deploy the new release on a smaller number of test devices.

 

This deferral process is available only on PCs running business and education editions, such as Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Enterprise, and Windows 10 Education. Windows 10 Home does not offer any deferral options. (On a PC running Windows 10 Home, you might be able to upgrade at no cost. See "How to upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Pro for free" for details.)

Use these settings in Windows 10 version 1803 to defer the next feature update for a minimum of 90 days.

Click to enlarge

Over the course of several feature updates since the initial release of Windows 10 in 2015, Microsoft has tinkered with the interface for deferring feature updates. The steps I describe here assume that you have already installed the October 2018 Update, version 1809.

 

And an important note: These procedures are not available if you are running a Windows Insider Preview build. On a machine that's part of the Windows Insider Program, you can pause updates for seven days, but because new builds (full feature updates) are typically delivered weekly to the Fast Ring, the normal defer/delay options aren't relevant.

 

The good news is that you no longer have to mess with Group Policy settings to defer updates on a standalone PC. Instead, you can take your choice of three options, all available in the Windows 10 Settings app.

 

Go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update, and then click Advanced options to see all three settings, which I have labeled in the screenshot on this page.

 

Option 1 allows you to choose a servicing channel (previously called a branch). The default setting is Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted), which corresponds to what was previously known as the Current Branch.

 

You can change this setting to Semi-Annual Channel (the new name for what was previously known as Current Branch for Business, as shown here. That defers feature updates until Microsoft declares them "ready for business deployment." For version 1803, that declaration happened uncharacteristically quickly, a mere two months after the initial release. By contrast, version 1809 was pulled from Microsoft's update servers shortly after release because of multiple quality issues; choosing this option spared devices from being affected by those initial bugs.

 

 

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