14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 10 May 2019 Update is now a sure thing after Microsoft officially confirmed its name, but at the same time, not everyone knows exactly what to expect from this new feature update.
And this is something that makes total sense, especially after the October 2018 Update fiasco when Microsoft shipped an OS update that lacked the typical refinements you would normally expect in a public release.
While today we’re not going to talk about the new features coming to users with the May 2019 Update, we’re going to answer three key questions about it, as it follows.
What is the May 2019 Update? When is the May 2019 Update launching for all users? And why is Microsoft launching the May 2019 Update later than expected?
Read on to find the answers to each of these questions.
What is the May 2019 Update?
Microsoft no longer ships new Windows 10 versions, but OS feature updates that come down to a larger release which includes several new features and lots of further refinements.
May 2019 Update is the successor to the October 2018 Update, and it is offered free of charge to users already running Windows 10. It can be downloaded from Windows Update just like a regular update.
Highlights of the May 2019 Update in terms of new features include a new light theme, as well as Windows Sandbox, which is a new secure environment that allows you to run apps without making changes to your files. Sandbox works like a built-in virtual machine running Windows 10, but every time you close it, all changes that you make are automatically removed.
Windows 10 May 2019 Update will land as version 1903, and this is a direct indicator of its RTM compiling date. The first two digits in the version number, namely 19, indicate the year when the update was finalized, while the other two, 03, represent the month. In our case, the May 2019 Update was finalized in March 2019.
When is the May 2019 Update launching for all users?
Despite the version number indicating that the development of this update has already been finalized, the May 2019 Update will go live for production devices next month.
Microsoft hasn’t provided a specific date when the public rollout would begin, but only said it plans to make the update available “in late May.”
Meanwhile, version 1903 will be offered to users in the Release Preview ring of the Windows Insider program for thorough testing before the public launch.
The update will receive several cumulative updates as part of this last testing stage, so when it gets the green light for production devices across the world, everything should be working much smoother.
Why is May 2019 Update and not April 2019 Update?
The answer to this question is just pure speculation right now, but it mostly has to do with the additional testing that the company needs before the public launch.
According to Microsoft’s original schedule, the company ships two different updates every year: one of them is supposed to be finalized in March, while the other one should be ready in September. Typically, the public rollout begins a month later, so we have April and October.
In this case, however, it seems Microsoft wants to test the update more thoroughly, and this is one of the reasons the company decided to keep the May update in the Release Preview ring for so long.
As I told you earlier this week, a bug potentially causing BSODs was only partially fixed in the update, so it was believed that Microsoft planned to release it despite the risks of fatal crashes.
This issue, possibly mixed with others, convinced the company it’s better to wait one more month before giving the go-ahead, and this is how the April update ended up finalized in March but shipping in May.