14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has pulled all download links for Windows 10 preview ISOs as the company is still working on releasing new images for Redstone 5.
Typically, Microsoft publishes new ISO images for Windows 10 preview when a particular build enters the Slow ring. This is the moment when a build is said to be more refined, with most of the bugs discovered in the Fast ring fixed and the OS install expected to provide smoother experience.
Since work on Redstone 5 started, however, the Slow ring has been more or less abandoned, with Microsoft rolling out only a single build to users enrolled in this channel.
This is surprising, to say the least, as Windows 10 Redstone 5 has already switched from RS_PRERELEASE to RS5_RELEASE branch, which means that it’s nearing the final development stages. In other words, during the entire Windows 10 Redstone 5 development cycle, Microsoft has released just a single build to the Slow ring.
Redstone 5 due in the fall
With Redstone 5 close to completion, removing older preview builds was clear a thing that Microsoft has to do. As Neowin notes, the previous builds offered for download as stand-alone ISOs, namely 17127 and 17115, have already expired, so even if the software giant allowed users to get them, they still wouldn’t be able to use the images for clean-installing Windows 10.
Instead of download links for new Windows 10 preview ISO images, users are provided with a coming soon flag, which means that Microsoft is planning to publish new files for download sometime soon.
Windows 10 Redstone 5 is projected to be finalized in September, while the public rollout should begin in October. This means that Microsoft still has more than two months to complete development of Redstone 5 and to ship new builds to the Slow ring.
We’ll be keeping an eye out on new ISO images that would be shipped by Microsoft, and we’ll let you know when they become available for download.