14 DAY TRIAL // As per its new release approach, Microsoft ships two different feature updates for Windows 10 every year, and the company more recently embraced a silent change, turning the fall pack of improvements into a smaller update that reminds of a service pack.
It happened last year, it happened again this year, and by the looks of things, a similar thing would happen again in 2021, only that the Redmond-based software giant is now planning a small change.
At this point, Microsoft has divided its Windows 10 feature update calendar into two separate releases, one in the spring and another one in the fall.
The spring update is typically a massive release that comes with plenty of improvements, many of which are new features that have been tested as part of the Windows Insider program for quite a lot of time. The fall update, on the other hand, is a smaller update with the focus on under the hood refinements, mostly in an attempt to polish the experience after the major spring update.
This is something that at one level makes sense, especially because always coming up with two different major feature updates every year increased the likelihood of problems for devices updated on day one.
Microsoft has thus switched to this new strategy which works pretty smoothly, and the company would stick with it in the coming year.
However, beginning with 2021, Microsoft might actually publish the minor update in the spring and not in the fall as part of a silent change that many may not understand at first but which makes perfect sense. As others have noticed, Microsoft is now conducting the same experiment in the Insider program that it launched earlier this year before rolling out the October 2020 Update.
“Starting with today’s build, Windows Insiders will notice that the name of the branch we are releasing builds from has changed to FE_RELEASE. Just like we did back in May when we released builds from the MN_RELEASE branch, we are practicing our ability to change which branch flight builds from. As our engineers work in development cycles internally, we may prioritize work being done in a specific branch and may need to move Insiders between branches,” Microsoft explained.
“As a result of the switch to the FE_RELEASE branch, Insiders will notice that some features like the updated emoji picker, redesigned touch keyboard, voice typing, theme-aware splash screens, and others have been removed temporarily. We look to bring these features back to Insiders in the future. As an important reminder – builds from the FE_RELEASE branch are not matched to a specific Windows 10 release.”
The reason for this change is likely the arrival of Windows 10X, whose debut is expected to happen in the spring of 2021. Major updates for Windows 10X would go live in the spring of each year, so Microsoft thus wants to sync these updates with minor revisions for the desktop version of Windows 10.
The fall major update for Windows 10 would thus receive more focus from Microsoft, and it makes more sense for enterprises as well, as it receives longer support than the spring release.
At first glance, everything seems to indicate that a minor Windows 10 feature update would be moved to the spring release, though very important to note right now is that Microsoft has remained completely tight-lipped on such details. The official version is that the company is currently testing the various channels in the Windows Insider program, so for now, what we do know is that a new feature update is supposed to land in the spring without any indication about what it’s supposed to include.