A Redmond executive confirmed that the company will release a feature update for Windows 10 twice yearly, with monthly cumulative updates throughout the year.
Windows 10 is due for a major update in the summer when the Anniversary Update lands with a host of new features and services. This type of major build upgrade is called a feature update and until now Microsoft has been unclear on its pattern for Windows 10.
The company has now shed some more light on its feature update roadmap and it seems we can expect to see two major upgrades to the Windows 10 platform per year.
That’s according to Microsoft senior program manager Chris Riggs, who was speaking to WinHEC attendees in Taiwan. He discussed the company’s plans for updates and upgrades, highlighting that there will be monthly cumulative updates and then a feature update launched every six months.
According to Riggs, the schedule for updates is as follows:
Each feature release follows a six-month development and testing cycle in the Insider program and then published to Current Branch systems.
The update is then distributed to applicable consumer editions. Windows 10 Home users, of course, have no control over the update and it will be installed automatically. Pro, Education and Enterprise editions can defer the upgrades.
After a four-month “pilot” phase, the update is then pushed to all audiences.
What this means for the Windows 10 Redstone build remains to be seen. It is widely known that Redstone is split into two upgrades, rs1 (which is the Anniversary Update) and rs2. The interesting thing about Redstone 2 is that Microsoft said it would land this year, only for that timeframe to be pushed back to 2017.
If feature updates are to be rolled out every six months, then Redstone build 2 should be due around December considering the Anniversary Update should launch in June.
