FAQ: How Microsoft will update Windows 10
FAQ: How Microsoft will update Windows 10
It's a complicated process, different than past decades,
but offers more options for some customers
Gregg Keizer By Gregg Keizer FOLLOW
Computerworld | Jun 15, 2015 3:11 AM PT
Microsoft is just weeks away from pushing customers into
a radical overhaul of how they receive security, maintenance and new feature
updates.
Windows 10, which Microsoft has promised will be updated
more often than past iterations, especially with feature and functionality,
user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) changes, will debut July 29.
That's only six weeks from now.
And while Microsoft remains closed-mouth about some of
the details of how it plans to keep Windows 10 up to date on customers'
devices, enough has surfaced for a relatively-clear picture of the process.
Short take: It's confusing and complicated, particularly
for long-time Windows veterans, who have dealt with the one-size-fits-all patch
policy of the past -- under which Microsoft presented updates to everyone,
whether consumers or massive corporations, at or almost at the same time -- for
decades.
We've collected all the hints and clues, the company's
statements -- straight out and implied -- and tried to stick together the
update ball of wax.
Wish us luck.
I use a PC at home. What do I get and when? If you're
running Windows 10 Home, the least-expensive retail SKU (stock-keeping unit) on
a new device or a PC you upgraded from Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic or Home
Premium or from Windows 8.1 via Microsoft's one-year free deal, you don't have
much of a choice: You get what Redmond's calling the Current Branch.
(Some of the confusion around Windows 10's new update
practice is the terminology: Microsoft has introduced a whole new vocabulary.
In its lingo, a "branch" is an update track, a meta track at that.
Different groups of customers will be able to adopt different branches. Then
there are the "rings" within a branch, but more on that later.)
The Current Branch (CB) will be pushed to users via
Windows Update (WU), the update mechanism in play since 1995. Every four months
or so, Microsoft will release an update to CB.
That's where things depart from the familiar. Those on CB
will not be able to ignore an update, postpone it -- with the exception of
registering with a slower ring -- or even selectively install some of its
contents and not others, as they can now with WU. A CB update is
all-or-nothing, minus the nothing. Think of it as a "service pack,"
the now-discarded label for large updates: You were never able to take just
pieces of a service pack, either.
So Microsoft ships a Current Branch and I have to take
it? Can I least delay it to let others be the guinea pigs? Yes, you have to
take it. And yes, you can delay it ... to a limited extent.
Microsoft will create rings -- there's that word again --
within CB that deliver updates on varying timetables. The company hasn't said
how many rings CB will offer or what they will be named, but the Windows
Insider program -- the current preview program that will continue after Windows
10's launch -- has a "fast" ring and a "slow" ring. Expect
those two at least.
Customers on the CB fast ring will receive the
every-four-months-or-so updates first, probably as soon as Microsoft
greenlights the refresh. Those on a slow ring will get it later. It's unclear
how much later, but one CB update must be distributed before the next arrives,
and since it's likely that updates will arrive every four months, logically a
slower ring will deliver the update before that span ends.
Why would I want to delay a CB update? I like new stuff!
Good for you. But there is a solid reason why a slow CB ring might be smart.
Whether it's because Microsoft wants to expand feedback
(its rationale) or simply wants to shift the testing burden from its engineers
to users (the cynic's view), the company will employ customers to shake out
bugs more than ever before.
The company hasn't been shy about saying so.
"Enterprises will be able to receive feature updates after their quality
and application compatibility has been assessed in the consumer market,"
Jim Alkove, director of program management for Microsoft's enterprise group,
said in a January blog post [emphasis added].
If you'd prefer others to put on the lab rat fur, so you
receive the update only after Microsoft's identified and fixed some of the
bugs, adopt a slower CB ring.
I'll say it again ... I like new stuff. Again, good for
you.
If you enjoy the bleeding edge, you can remain in, or
register with, the Windows Insider program, which will continue serving changes
as soon as Microsoft approves them for the previewing public. Windows Insiders
will be the first line of outside testers -- Microsoft says it runs updates
internally first -- and get updates before any other customers.
Windows Insider will not be shut down after Windows 10's
release -- that's what Microsoft has done in the past with beta programs -- but
will continue indefinitely as the OS's fastest update branch.
So that's it? CB or nothing? No, even if you use a
home-based Windows 10 device.
Microsoft's second branch, dubbed Current Branch for
Business (CBB) offers more flexibility in update timing, although like CB, it's
an automatically-delivered deal that doesn't let you parse updates into
take-some-leave-some pieces.
CBB, as the name implies, targets businesses, but anyone
with a PC or other device running Windows 10 Pro -- the more expensive and more
capable retail and pre-installed SKU -- can adopt this branch. That will
include those who take the free upgrade from Windows 7 Professional or Windows
7 Ultimate, or from Windows 8.1 Pro.
(Microsoft's not actually said as much, but unless the
company pulls out some magic, a Windows 10 Pro device is a Windows 10 Pro
device, no matter where it happens to sit, whether inside a company or on a
consumer's dining room table.)
CBB will rely on Windows Update for Business (WUB) --
tired of the acronyms yet? -- a new service that Microsoft announced in early
May at its inaugural Ignite conference. WUB is the business-grade version of
Windows Update, and like the latter, will insure that all users get each
update.
Consumers with a Windows 10 Pro-based device will receive
each update about four months after it's been issued to consumers on the CB.
Microsoft figures that the four months will shake out even more bugs --
consumers as testers, deux -- so that business users, or at least those running
Windows 10 Pro or Windows 10 Enterprise -- will see a more stable update with a
correspondingly lower risk of something breaking.
That's the theory, anyway.
Anyone who relies strictly on WUB for CBB updates must
install said updates within four months -- before the next one appears, in
other words -- or be bumped off Microsoft's security patch list.
So, with CBB, consumers with Windows 10 Pro can postpone
an update for up to eight months: the four used by CB plus the four for CBB on
WUB.
Confused yet?
When do security updates reach me? As part of my CB or
CBB updates? No. Security updates are a horse of a different color.
Think of the CB and CBB updates as delivering feature,
functionality, UI and UX changes only. Security updates -- the vulnerability
fixes that since 2003 have been issued the second Tuesday of each month, or
"Patch Tuesday" -- are not associated with these updates.
Instead, Microsoft will issue patches on an ongoing
basis, security experts have concluded in the absence of clarity from Redmond.
Rather than hold completed fixes until the next Patch Tuesday, Microsoft will
release them as work concludes.
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