April 2018 Update Rolling Out Even Faster than Expected

Here Comes Windows 10 Version 1803

An astonishing new report from AdDuplex shows that the Windows 10 April 2018 Update has rolled out at a historically fast rate. What game is Microsoft playing here?

“The April 2018 Update managed to reach 50 percent of Windows 10 PCs in just one month,” AdDuplex notes in its most recent report. “Windows 10 version 1803 is the fastest-spreading Windows 10 update by far. It took Fall Creators Update twice as long to cross the 50 percent line, and Creators Update was under 50 percent for about 3 months.”

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So there you go: As promised last week on Windows Weekly, we’d soon get the data to prove that Microsoft is spewing this update out at an unprecedented rate. Why they are doing so is unclear, given the many problems that users have had with this update. (Not to mention the internal issues that delayed the original release.) But there it is, even worse than I had expected. Much worse. Irresponsibly worse.

As for other data in this month’s report, a few things stand out:

Most modern Surface PCs are ahead of the average. “Newer Surface models are beating the global average, when it comes to the April 2018 Update, while older ones are lagging behind,” AdDuplex notes. “Surface Laptop is a notable exception with only 37.3 percent.”

Dell, Microsoft, and MSI are outpacing other PCs makers when it comes to deploying the update. “Acer and Toshiba are notably behind the global average, AdDuplex says.

As a reminder, AdDuplex is a leading independent ad network reaching hundreds of thousands of Windows 10 users every day.

 

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  • Waethorn

    30 May, 2018 - 10:20 am

    <p>"AdDuplex is a leading independent ad network reaching hundreds of thousands of Windows 10 users every day."</p><p><br></p><p>What kind of fluff promotion line is this???</p>

    • Chris Payne

      30 May, 2018 - 12:42 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#279421"><em>In reply to Waethorn:</em></a></blockquote><p>AdDuplex might require that sort of citation if you use their research in any publications.</p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      01 June, 2018 - 6:04 pm

      <p><a href="#279421"><em>In reply to Waethorn:</em></a></p><p>Keywords: <em>hundreds of thousands of Windows 10 users</em>. Meaning between 0.04% and 0.1% of all Windows 10 users? The 1 in 1,000 of 'em who use 3rd party UWP apps?</p>

  • Scott Ross

    30 May, 2018 - 10:24 am

    <p>I try to wait a month or two after release to upgrade to the next build on my main PC. I did not have that option this time. I was a little upset. then it did it on the work computer, then the one partition of the beater computer. I was impressed that my little under powered winbook upgraded to 1803. it would not update to 1709. </p><p>I will say this update is as annoying as the win 7/8 to win 10 update. </p>

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    30 May, 2018 - 10:28 am

    <p>All my Windows machines are on 1803. I just went clean install…</p><p><br></p><p>… because I was moving Windows to a different drive on one, and replacing Linux on another, so clean install was the only option anyway.</p>

  • Martin Pelletier

    Premium Member
    30 May, 2018 - 10:30 am

    <p>The update didn't go well, I had to reset my PC. Now it's going well.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

  • Chris_Kez

    Premium Member
    30 May, 2018 - 10:39 am

    <p>Funny that my new Surface Pro is still on 1709. Having just gotten it a few days ago I expected that during the setup process it would pull down 1803 along with all of the other updates. It last checked for updates (by itself) last night. I assume if I click "Check for updates" myself right now it will download 1803; this is what happened with my Surface 3 last week (according to AdDuplex, only 18% of Surface 3's have 1803).</p>

  • Angusmatheson

    30 May, 2018 - 10:40 am

    <p>I became an accidental seeker. I hate it when microsoft updates when I’m trying to work, so I often check Microsoft update when I am leaving. That has unwittingly forced 1803 on all of my computers – even the old ones. Even before I knew what being a “seeker” was I had committed my computers to being on the leading edge of the windows 10 update. I didn’t have any problems, but I hear about all these stories of blue screens and I realized I dodged bullets.</p>

  • Tony Barrett

    30 May, 2018 - 10:53 am

    <p>Ever since I had no choice but to do a full manual re-install of 1709 after the 1703&gt;1709 'upgrade' totally borked my laptop, I'm blocking all future 'upgrades' for as long as I can. </p><p>FYI, the term 'upgrade' to me generally means something that is better than the previous version or release. I wholly dispute this with Windows 10 upgrades. They're almost always a step backwards – if the PC actually completes the upgrade at all you can be pretty sure something will now be broken or not work as before, and 1803 has had some showstopper bugs!</p>

    • PeteB

      30 May, 2018 - 12:27 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#279431"><em>In reply to ghostrider:</em></a></blockquote><p>These featureless, seasonal updates are nothing more than compliance reinforcement updates – reset all your settings back to MS defaults, remove any pesky tools you're trying to block telemetry or Windows updates with, and do it continually so eventually you just get tired of fighting and having to painstakingly put all the tweaks in place again.</p><p><br></p><p>I used to think it was technical ineptitude preventing MS from delta updating 10 like the much less troublesome service pack days back when you could still trust MS updates. Now it's clear the full install masquerading as an update is intentional.</p><p> </p>

    • bigjon-x64

      Premium Member
      30 May, 2018 - 1:01 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#279431"><em>In reply to ghostrider:</em></a></blockquote><p>Timeline is a great new feature making 1803 a definite upgrade. </p>

  • alpensturm

    30 May, 2018 - 11:06 am

    <p>I did a clean install of 1803 on my Lenovo ThinkPad 10 Tablet – first generation, and on my Sandy Bridge Dell XPS 15 (7+ years old) I let the update do its job. Both machines run so far flawless, fast and stable – no complaints. And I use them both daily and heavily.</p>

    • Waethorn

      30 May, 2018 - 2:06 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#279433"><em>In reply to alpensturm:</em></a></blockquote><p>Clean install is the key. It won't last though.</p>

      • rameshthanikodi

        31 May, 2018 - 7:41 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#279499"><em>In reply to Waethorn:</em></a></blockquote><p>Can we put an end to this myth? My laptop shipped with Windows 8, i've upgraded it to Windows 8.1, Windows 8.1 Update, Windows 10, Windows 10 1511, 1607, 1703, and 1709. I have never had to reset this laptop, never had to to a 'clean install'. It has lasted.</p>

    • PurpleDisciple

      30 May, 2018 - 4:21 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#279433"><em>In reply to alpensturm:</em></a> clean install</blockquote><p><br></p><p>Yeah no. Ain't noone got time for that crap</p><p><br></p>

  • tremblaymax

    30 May, 2018 - 11:26 am

    <p>1803 is stable so far on my Surface Book /w Perf base, with the exception of a weird driver bug. I can't detach the screen anymore when the device is in sleep mode or shutdown, it has to be awaken and alive. Tried to refresh and reinstall drivers with no luck. Hope Microsoft will release a new firmware soon to fix that, it's kinda annoying.</p><p><br></p><p>Anyone else experiencing this ? </p>

  • Bart

    Premium Member
    30 May, 2018 - 11:31 am

    <p>3 pc's, all working well</p>

  • prettyconfusd

    30 May, 2018 - 12:01 pm

    <p>I've had a *lot* of fix updates to my SP4 the past week or so. I actually thought the mouse in my Microsoft ergonomic desktop set was broken (due to it acting super laggy and duplicating clicks) and ordered a new one just to find out that it was a bug that seemingly got fixed before the new one arrived… Not impressed how quickly they're pushing it out considering how many people I know have had plenty of issues with it. </p><p><br></p><p>They even pushed it to the machines at my school and they're super-old and slow. Each machine took over 6 hours to install…</p><p><br></p><p>My SP4 seems ok now at least but last week was deadline week and I couldn't rely on it, not great after how smoothly the last two updates went.</p>

  • thalter

    Premium Member
    30 May, 2018 - 12:14 pm

    <p>Every time Microsoft pushes out a new Windows 10 update it "bricks" my Parallels VM on my Mac. 1803 was no different. However, I was surprised how quickly it got pushed to my computer: Normally it takes several months for me to receive a Windows 10 update (by which time Parallels will have updated their drivers and Add-Ins). No such luck this time.</p>

  • Todd Northrop

    30 May, 2018 - 12:32 pm

    <p>Let me get this straight: When iOS adoption of OS updates is incredibly quick, that's always a good thing. When Windows adoption of OS updates is quick, that's a bad thing. Gotcha Paul, thanks for the insight.</p>

    • Angusmatheson

      30 May, 2018 - 10:30 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#279470"><em>In reply to Speednet:</em></a></blockquote><p>Even new versions of MacOS don’t roll out that fast – and they have only a very configurations of computers to support.</p>

  • chrisrut

    Premium Member
    30 May, 2018 - 1:11 pm

    <p>I dunno – I enjoy watching how far this envelope can be pushed without <em>really </em>breaking anything. I mean, there have been problems… but they sort of fade rapidly…. Out of our 200+ workstations, there were a few recalcitrant examples. There always are. And a few ham radio friends reported problems with serial port re-enumerations. But even in that group, most of us had no problems at all. So all in all; meh. Another day at the office.</p><p>Later, feet back off the road and up on the desk so to speak, my security hat kicks in, and I observe that this Windows 10 ecosystem is learning how to deploy fixes to itself – to the ecosystem as a <em>whole</em> in rapid response to threats. And I ponder: how important could <em>that </em>be defensively in a cyber-attack scenario? Sigh. The only way to fight AI-based attacks will be with AI-based detection and response. Is this our first line against Skynet, or Skynet's first line?</p>

  • Polycrastinator

    30 May, 2018 - 1:40 pm

    <p>This particular debacle, more than anything else, has me questioning if we should really be recommending PCs to average consumers at all. Or even small businesses. If, as Microsoft seems to have realized, PCs are used for work and "important" stuff, hosing up even a small portion of them with these unnecessary Windows builds is really unacceptable. You're messing with people's work and livelihoods and they need to start treating these things as something other than a product that doesn't have a real potential to wreck people's day.</p>

  • madthinus

    Premium Member
    30 May, 2018 - 1:42 pm

    <p>These numbers are surely only for Consumer PC's</p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      30 May, 2018 - 4:28 pm

      <p><a href="#279491"><em>In reply to madthinus:</em></a></p><p>These numbers are only from people who use UWP or perhaps also Modern apps which AdDuplex monitors. Odds are that includes no workplace PCs and perhaps not that many consumer PCs either. Note that AdDuplex doesn't provide any indication of the number of user machines from which it collected data. The site only mentions <em>around 5,000 Windows Store apps running AdDuplex SDK v.2 (and higher)</em>.</p>

  • dexman335

    30 May, 2018 - 2:05 pm

    <p>I'm a bit surprised by the low update rate for the Surface 3. My Surface 3 runs fine with 1803.</p><p><br></p><p>The only hiccup I've run into has to do with adding contacts to the Microsoft People app. Editing existing contacts works as expected. The pop-up dialog box that advises that a contact doesn't exist continues to appear even after the user tries to dismiss it.</p><p><br></p><p>All of my Windows devices developed this quirk once upgraded to 1803. Hopefully a patch will resolve the issue.</p>

  • valisystem

    Premium Member
    30 May, 2018 - 2:27 pm

    <p>I'm getting a steady stream of phone calls and feedback from clients about 1803 problems. Some of them are inexcusable – like the irritating "low disk space" notifications when a recovery partition is assigned a drive letter. I have run into Bluetooth issues, wi-fi issues, sharing problems, side effects of Homegroup being deprecated, and more.</p><p><br></p><p>But a lot of this is similar to the typical experience of using Windows in the last few years, where unreasonably difficult things happen regularly. That's part of the problem that leads MS to where it is today. </p><p><br></p><p>MS must be calculating that the advantages of 1803 – fixes, security updates, design improvements, etc. – outweigh the problems. I wish it was more obvious. Because right now, it looks like 1803 is being rolled out too fast for no reason.</p>

  • alabamaboy

    30 May, 2018 - 2:30 pm

    <p>This was the smoothest upgrade ever. All 5 of my machines updated without a hitch.</p>

    • Payton

      Premium Member
      31 May, 2018 - 2:08 pm

      <blockquote>Likewise here. I did a weekend update of ~30 computers, various makes and models, laptops and desktops plus a couple of Surface Pros, upgrading from several generations of Windows 10. All upgraded and work now without a hitch.</blockquote><p><br></p>

  • MagneticFlux

    30 May, 2018 - 3:50 pm

    <p>This upgrade removed Home Group which at first I didn't think was a big deal until I tried to communicate to other PCs on my network. I had to find some weird sounding obscure setting in services (internet to the rescue once again) set it to automatic and reboot all 4 machines. Apparently Microsoft sets this weird ass service from manual to automatic and back again on a whim on each build. The setting as I remember it was "Function Discovery Resource Publication".</p>

  • Siv

    30 May, 2018 - 4:02 pm

    <p>The word has come down, shove out 1803 get everyone to say yes to all the security stuff as no "normal" will understand the implications of it and will assume if they so "No" it will all break Windows. That ticks the "we've addressed the GDPR" thing and gets us a mass of customers who have allowed us to rifle all their data and make billions of advertising bucks. </p><p><br></p><p>I have had a stream of personal clients asking me to fix the virus only to realise it was the 1803 security questions!</p><p><br></p><p>Needless to say I am now running Linux Mint and Windows 10 runs in a VirtualBox VM for programming so most of the time I don't have to take this shit any more.</p><p><br></p><p>Siv</p>

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    30 May, 2018 - 4:18 pm

    <p>Fascinating that 0.4% of Windows 10 PCs still use 1507. Assuming 600m Windows 10 PCs out of 700m Windows 10 devices in use, that means there are 2.4 million PCs still using 1507 data from which AdDuplex is still able to capture.</p><p>As for OEMs, given what MSI sells and who its customers are, not surprising they lead in terms of users on the latest Windows version.</p>

    • LT1 Z51

      Premium Member
      30 May, 2018 - 11:49 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#279539"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>Some companies are improperly using LTSB versions. Ford for example rolled out 1507 LTSB to all existing users. As hardware is updated users are migrated to 1607 LTSB. I'm sure this isn't unique to Ford and many Fortune 500 companies are also following this, in my opinion, bad practice.</p>

  • PaulHewitt

    30 May, 2018 - 5:30 pm

    <p>MS were 'kind' enough to cram 1803 down my throat about a week ago. For the first time ever a Windows upgrade broke my WiFi (and I'm on a 2-in-1 with no ethernet). endless fiddling with settings and reboots didn't work. Finally I remembered I had a USB WiFi dongle which DID work. WU promptly downloaded a cumulative update which fixed the main WiFi. I'd have been screwed without the WiFi dongle. I could cope with this kind of thing once every 12 to 18 months, but twice a year is frankly becoming a drag. The cons column with Windows is starting to rapidly eclipse the pros….</p>

  • Whiplash55

    Premium Member
    30 May, 2018 - 7:51 pm

    <p>Maybe I'm just lucky, but my desktop started with Win 8.0 and I've just let it upgrade one step at a time since, up to the current 1803 build.(yes I'm backed up) It has always just worked fine. I have an older Intel 3820K and an old AMD graphics card. I like the new build just fine but I really don't see a lot of changes that I actually use. The best thing for me has been Win 10's keyboard shortcuts which I enjoy. </p><p>I keep threatening to do a clean install but it runs so well I don't see any point. I have upgraded to larger Samsung SSD's along the way but I just clone them over to the new drive. I've done a similar upgrade path with a Thinkpad T440P with the same results. Seems like MS is doing just fine.</p>

  • RR

    30 May, 2018 - 7:56 pm

    <p>I don't know what you are talking about Paul. They offered me this update few weeks ago, I took it, and I have never had a problem. It works, and my computer and experience with the OS is clearly much better than before the update. I can list a few things:</p><ol><li>There is some multi task view whatcamacallit feature that is very useful allows quicker/ efficient task switching</li><li>They have the timeline that allows me to go back</li><li>Edge feels ultra stable and fast, the UI can't be beat by any other browser. Chrome is crap.</li><li>Fluent Design System is much better on some Apps including Edge, Calender etc, with the sharper defined edges and some highlight thing when you hover with the mouse</li><li>Looks like they enabled Cortana to do a few more useful things, like it started sending me when my stocks crashed (not sure that is very endearing, but there you have it)</li><li>etc</li><li>I would rave about the ability to write with my hand in windows and in Edge etc, but those have been there for a long while. </li></ol><p><br></p><p>Why should they not roll it out and flex their muscles. Don't be a playa hater dude.</p>

    • Tony Barrett

      31 May, 2018 - 6:19 am

      <blockquote><a href="#279561"><em>In reply to RR:</em></a></blockquote><p>I'm glad your personal upgrade experience was satisfactory. For many others, it isn't, and causes a massive amount of problems. Please also, make sure you add 'in my opinion' to your comments – Chrome is far from 'crap'.</p>

      • Jim Butts

        31 May, 2018 - 5:42 pm

        <blockquote><em>No really, Chrome is crap</em></blockquote><blockquote><a href="#279656"><em>In reply to ghostrider:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p>

  • nbplopes

    31 May, 2018 - 5:32 am

    <p>My wife’s dying SP3 (a three year machine $1700+) updated ok.</p><p><br></p><p>I think it’s good that MS is achieving this volume of updates, if they really are because we can never know with MS.</p><p><br></p><p>Meanwhile yesterday, a few hours after release, I updated the 2xApple Watch, 2xiPhones, 1xiPad Pro, 1xApple TV, 1xMacbook Pro and no problems.</p><p><br></p><p>These are machines we use everyday in the house. Not an update of tens to hundered machines with minor tests of someone else to use.. in other words, we directly experience every day, every single the impact of these updates, good or bad.</p>

    • Mestiphal

      31 May, 2018 - 8:23 am

      <blockquote><a href="#279654"><em>In reply to nbplopes:</em></a></blockquote><p>You would hope there is no issue with the SF3, regardless of how many years it has, a $1700+ machine should not be designed to be replaced that often</p>

      • nbplopes

        02 June, 2018 - 2:31 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#279710"><em>In reply to Mestiphal:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Well. My wife, she is a high school maths teacher. Every other week she says “I think my computer is dying” (the SP3). I go there, do something, and seams to help. in fact that is why I updated it, and gave me some info to report on this thread.</p><p><br></p><p>She does not bring home her school given PC, a sub 800 Lenovo Thinkpad, that she says that it’s not ok either. The IT departament has some complains about them too. </p><p><br></p><p>I am convincing her to get either an iPad Pro 10.9 or a Chromebook for her next system. If only the iPad Pro supported the mouse, that would be a easy decisiion.</p><p><br></p><p>Talking about people that need something that just works. Not so much a high powered machine or something that potentially does everything as well as roasted chicken.</p>

  • summersk59

    01 June, 2018 - 12:58 am

    <p>I ran the update on my Lenovo T530 (yes, old) but it went off with pretty much no issues except "low disk space" notifications with a recovery partition. This was easily resolved with a quick search. What I found interesting is the bluetooth now works better, connecting to my Samsung S7 without issue. Overall, I've had no other issues thus far. So I must be one of the lucky ones, but I still have one more machine to update, won't push my luck and wait a bit! </p>

  • epguy40

    01 June, 2018 - 1:25 pm

    <p>well folks, check out this recent article by Ed Bott from the ZDNet site:</p><p>www.zdnet.com/article/has-microsoft-accelerated-its-latest-windows-10-rollout-not-so-fast/</p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      01 June, 2018 - 6:00 pm

      <p><a href="#280381"><em>In reply to epguy40:</em></a></p><p>Many here have questioned the accuracy of AdDuplex data over time. Seems repetitious. Nevertheless, perhaps what this really indicates is that AdDuplex's sampling has become much less representative of all Windows 10 PCs in use. Perhaps to the point it's pretty much useless beyond monthly blog postings.</p>

      • davidblouin

        06 June, 2018 - 12:09 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#280444"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>Their data is base on ads from their ad network shown on UWP app.</p><p><br></p><p>The question is , how many use UWP app, that has ads from the AdDuplex ad network ?</p>

    • John Scott

      04 June, 2018 - 7:35 am

      <blockquote><a href="#280381"><em>In reply to epguy40:</em></a> Other then questioning the data, Bott did little to provide other data this wasn't happening? Either its being pushed out to more devices quicker which I assume Microsoft would eventually want which makes this release look more buggy. Or its on the same release cycle as the previous one's and this is really a buggier release for more devices. </blockquote><p><br></p>

  • bromberg

    02 June, 2018 - 5:29 pm

    <p>Paul,</p><p> Can you be more specific what you and others hate about v1803? You said it was rolled out too early but it would have been helpful if you were more specific in what you were annoyed about.</p><p><br></p><p> I had to back off my v1803 upgrade to v1709 because I got the "spinning circle syndrome" upon bootup, where I could not get as far as my desktop.</p><p> It would have been nice if MS provided me with a clue why this happened. Actually, I thought the upgrade to v1803 went well until I tried to reboot the next day 🙁 …grrrr!</p><p>Dan</p>

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