The first builds are expected to see daylight in August

Jul 30, 2016 08:30 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is expected to release the Windows 10 Anniversary Update on August 2, so the company is close to completing work on one of the most important updates for the operating system launched last year in July.

The Anniversary Update was built from the very beginning with help from insiders, who downloaded, installed and thoroughly tested every new build, providing feedback and suggestions that in the end allowed the company to find the best way a certain feature should work.

And because everything went so smoothly, Microsoft is now planning to continue releasing insider builds for the next Windows 10 update, which, according to people with knowledge of the plans, should land in spring 2017.

First RS2 builds are now being compiled internally

The Anniversary Update is often referred to as the first wave of Redstone, or Redstone 1 (RS1), so it’s just the first part of a bigger update that should land on Windows 10 devices. The second update is now projected to see daylight in the first quarter of 2017, and Microsoft will start releasing preview builds to insiders as soon as August. The company first needs to make sure that everyone is getting the Anniversary Update correctly, and then it can start focusing on RS2.

The very first builds released to insiders won’t bring any breaking changes, and this makes sense because the company still needs to improve RS1 gradually before introducing new features. But as we advance through the development process, new goodies will one by one show up in preview builds, and according to sources, there’ll be plenty of them, including for phones.

Just like the first wave of Redstone, the second update will be aimed at PCs, mobile devices, and Xbox, but Microsoft has promised more cool things for smartphones this time. The debut of Redstone 2 is likely to take place together with the Surface Phone, a new flagship device running Windows 10 Mobile, but its existence is yet to be confirmed by Microsoft.