Tip o’ the Week #285 – Windows 10 picking up pace
The release of Windows 10 has started to pick up speed as it nears its planned July 29th RTM. If your home PC isn’t running Windows 10 yet (ie. you haven’t opted in as a Windows Insider) , then you can reserve your free upgrade today and you’ll get it via Windows Update when it releases in a few weeks’ time. Windows Insiders will get theirs first, and reserved upgrades will roll in waves thereafter.
The latest builds of Windows have been coming thick and fast – 10158, 10159 and 10162 have all been pushed to the “Fast” ring this week, meaning users who opt in to be a bit more on the bleeding edge and to get their builds quickly will see upgrades more frequently. “Slow” ring users may well get 10162 next week. ISO images of 10162 are available now.
This is the first time Microsoft has really done the “flighting” approach where a quality bar is set, and if the daily build meets that bar, it gets released to a wider audience. Now that we’re getting nearer the end (the deathmarch, as it’s sometimes known in software engineering) , the quality of daily builds is that much better and therefore we’re seeing more frequency of upgrades.
Latest in the crop, are the new login experience with the fancy new Windows 10 wallpaper, the proper appearance of the Microsoft Edge browser, some new apps and a load more. Build 10158 also fixed a blocking issue with Surface 3 meaning it couldn’t upgrade, and the whole thing is optimized better for Surface devices. In fact, the word is that 59 and 62 builds have a load more performance improvements across the board. There are some cool new features in Cortana, and a load more – see here for one take on the top 5.
It’s going to be an exciting few weeks!