14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft rolled out Windows 10 Mobile build 10586.71 a few hours ago as a cumulative update for devices enrolled in the fast ring of the Windows Insider program, and together with this, the company also introduced a new update system for its mobile platform.
Previously, updating from one build to another as part of the Windows Insider program certainly took a while, but with the new release, it appears that the company has decided to embrace a different concept that makes deployment a lot faster.
MicrosoftInsider writes that the Configuration Update that the company released last week for Lumia smartphones participating in the Insider program makes it possible to only download the new files for a specific device, and not the full ROM, as it happened before.
As a result, the cumulative updates that Redmond releases for Windows 10 Mobile work pretty much the same as the ones on the PC version of Windows 10, which only download the new files to bring a specific computer fully up to date.
Cumulative updates for mobile devices
The first Windows 10 Mobile cumulative update was released by Microsoft with build 10586.29, which landed on December 4 to update the platform, but also to increase the version number.
“The first thing you will notice with this Cumulative Update is it will use the minor version for differentiating between each version as these builds only contain fixes to the Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview build already in the Fast and Slow rings,” Gabe Aul, head of the Windows Insider program, explained in a blog post at that time.
This new update system should also help Microsoft deliver updates to Windows 10 Mobile handsets once the operating system becomes available for Windows Phone devices, which, according to sources, should happen sometime later this month.
Furthermore, it would help Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 for PCs come closer together, as Microsoft is trying to unify the two systems to provide seamless transition across devices running its new OS.