Microsoft makes every effort to ensure that the update may avoid 1809 errors

Microsoft really wants to avoid a repetition of the mess surrounding the release of the latest Windows 10 feature update. Windows 10 version 1809, updated October 2018, had a bug that, under certain circumstances, was destroying the data users, forcing the company to suspend deployment of the update. It turned out that the bug had been reported but that it had been neglected and that even after this problem was fixed, this version was still suffering from some other annoying bugs.

As a result, the company will take a very different approach with the next update of Windows 10. The code name 19H1 and still under the 1903 mark (indicating that it was completed in March 2019), the next bet updated to be published in April Update 2019. But this is not the case. This will be the May 2019 update, as Microsoft is much more cautious with this release. Next week, a build will be placed on the Release Preview ring, which should provide about a month of testing before the scheduled release date.

This alone is a major difference from 1809 because this version largely ignored the preview ring of the publication for reasons that remain unclear. But Microsoft goes much further to make this version a success.

The first big change is a much bigger control on the part of the user. Previously, a Windows user could check Windows Update and be offered a monthly quality update, or a bi-annual update, with little obvious distinction between them. The first can install in minutes; the latter can last from 20 to 80 minutes. To make things more predictable, both types of updates will be clearly distinguished. In addition, users will be able to explicitly choose to install monthly updates without getting the feature update. They will keep this capacity for months. As long as Microsoft will produce security updates for the Windows version of the user, the update of the features will be optional. Only when the Windows version nears its end of life will this feature update be made mandatory.

Monthly corrections will also be easier to delay. As stated earlier, all Windows users, including those in Windows 10 Home, will be able to delay monthly updates up to 35 days. Specifically, they may delay it for one week for five weeks, after which the system will not allow them any further delay.

Once the update is installed, Windows will also try to be smarter with regards to timing. We have already heard this and Microsoft has introduced features like Active Hours to allow you to block hours when you never want to be bothered by an update. To this, Microsoft adds the ability for Windows to set statically active hours based on knowledge about your favorite usage patterns.

Microsoft will also propose a new dashboard so that it can more easily determine the status of the feature update. Microsoft implements various temporary blocks to avoid known incompatibilities and allows third-party software and drivers to be updated, but this can be very opaque to the end-user, who may be faced with a situation where a system refuses to propose a particular update. without obvious indication of why. The new dashboard should make it easier to discover known issues and incompatibilities, as well as corrective actions that can be taken (for example, upgrading a particular software program) to unblock the update.

This is in addition to the changes made to Windows itself, which should provide much greater accuracy regarding detected incompatibilities and blocking issues.

Finally, Microsoft hopes to be more efficient in capturing reports on low-frequency, high-impact problems such as the 1809 data loss bug. The company will use machine learning systems to try to identify reports of this problem. type of bug, and the system will look further. Rather than relying solely on bug reports generated via Insider Hub (official method for reporting Windows 10-related bugs, but unusable if, for example, your Windows 10 system does not start), the new system on alternate sources bug reports such as tweets and Reddit posts. We will also devote more effort to finding solutions to these problems to avoid any real problem.

Once these changes are taken into account, there should be better early detection of bugs and problems, and Windows users of all types will be able to avoid all the early difficulties that upgrades and disruptions have caused. previous updates. But that will also probably mean that the adoption of the May update will be much slower than that of previous updates. If Microsoft is keen on its plan to let the optional feature update until it becomes a prerequisite for support, many Windows 10 users may not be able to upgraded more than a year after its publication.