14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 10 Redstone 3 is projected to be finalized in September, as per Microsoft’s strategy to ship two major Windows updates every year, and now we have the first confirmation that this is indeed the plan, with the RTM build to be compiled as version 1709.
Microsoft is giving version numbers to final Windows 10 builds that represent the compiling year and month, with Windows 10 Anniversary Update, for example, launching as version 1607 – the first two digits represent the year, while the other two the month, so the Anniversary Update was compiled in July 2016.
Official Microsoft documents spotted by WZor, who has a good track on information regarding unreleased Windows versions, include references to Windows 10 version 1709, which according to the aforementioned naming approach, is likely to be the RTM build of Redstone 3 launching in September 2017.
The Fall Creators Update project
Windows 10 Redstone 3 will be officially called Fall Creators Update and it is already in development with help from users participating in the Windows Insider program.
Microsoft is yet to confirm the release schedule for the Fall Creators Update, but if the final build is compiled in September, there’s a good chance users in the production ring get it in early October.
The Fall Creators Update is projected to bring a long series of improvements to PCs, including some that were previewed by Microsoft at the Build developer conference last month. One of the most important is called Fluent Design and it includes an updated design language that would add new animations and visual effects to Windows 10 apps on both PCs and smartphones.
Fluent Design is already in its first stages as part of preview builds, but it should evolve with more breaking changes in the coming months, as we advance towards the final stages of the Redstone 3 development process.