It’s a Date! Windows 10 Creators Update to Ship on April 11

It's a Date! Windows 10 Creators Update to Ship on April 11

Microsoft revealed today that the Windows 10 Creators Update will begin rolling out to customers via Windows Update on April 11.

“The Creators Update is designed to spark and unleash creativity, bringing 3D and mixed reality to everyone and enabling every gamer to be a broadcaster,” Microsoft corporate vice president Yusuf Mehdi said in a prepared statement. “Beyond creativity, it brings new features to Microsoft Edge, additional security capabilities and privacy tools, and so much more.”

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In a briefing earlier this week, Microsoft’s Aaron Woodman reiterated the three primary themes that Microsoft communicated when it first announced the Creators Update in late October: 3D and mixed reality, gaming, and Microsoft Edge.

“This is the third major update to Windows 10,” he told me. “And the key features in this update will help light up creativity.”

I’ve provided a more detailed list of what’s expected in this release in my post Windows 10 Creators Update Preview. But at a high level, Microsoft is pushing the following changes in this release:

3D and mixed reality. With the Creators Update, Windows 10 gains a new Paint 3D app for creating 3D objects (with sharing via Remix3D.com), plus the plumbing necessary to enable Windows Mixed Reality: Compatible headsets from a variety of hardware makers are due later in 2017 and will start at just $299.

Gaming. The Creators Update brings a number of gaming-related enhancements, including Game Mode, which will make games run more efficiently. From a creator’s perspective, Beam compatibility will let any gamer broadcast their gaming sessions and interact with viewers in unique ways.

Microsoft Edge. While not specifically focused at creators, the improvements coming in Microsoft Edge are still notable: Microsoft’s web browser is picking up major security and performance improvements, plus new tab management and e-book functionality.

In addition to these big bucket features, Microsoft is also highlighting smaller but still important improvements like Night Light, which reduces the blue light emitted from your PC’s display, Mini View for picture-in-picture video display, and Remote Lock, which uses proximity sensing to lock your PC when you step away with a compatible device. Also, a new Windows Defender Security Center dashboard will provide better visibility into the security, health, and online safety of your PC, Microsoft says.

Given the problems Microsoft had rolling out the Anniversary Update last summer, the firm is taking a more cautious stand with this update. It says it is in “constant learn mode,” and will, as always, stage the rollout over time, gauging its success as it goes.

“It will start slow and scale out as we meet our metrics,” Mr. Woodman told me. “The objective here is customer satisfaction, not time to scale.”

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Conversation 44 comments

  • Waethorn

    29 March, 2017 - 9:16 am

    <p>As I predicted: it's not a March update after all.</p>

    • TheJoeFin

      Premium Member
      29 March, 2017 - 9:19 am

      <blockquote><a href="#93921"><em>In reply to Waethorn:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>haha that was a pretty easy prediction. Do you also predict that it won't snow this June?</p>

      • peterh_oz

        29 March, 2017 - 9:42 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#93924">In reply to TheJoeFin:</a></em></blockquote><p>The southern hemisphere snowfields will be quite disappointed if it doesn't snow this June! #halftheplanetwillbeinwinter #yourcommentishemispherist #hemispherediscrimination #gallpetersprojection</p>

        • TheJoeFin

          Premium Member
          29 March, 2017 - 11:08 am

          <blockquote><a href="#93943"><em>In reply to peterh_oz:</em></a></blockquote><p>You got me! Of all the hemispheres I've grown up in I can confidently say that the northern is the only one.</p>

        • Tallin

          29 March, 2017 - 11:27 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#93943">In reply to peterh_oz:</a></em></blockquote><p>Actually, most of the inhabited southern hemisphere gets very little snow. This is because most of the land in the southern hemisphere (not buried under the ice of Antarctica) is much closer to the equator. In fact, I probably have&nbsp;as much chance of getting snow here in Canada in June as the vast majority of the population in the southern hemisphere (it has actually snowed in every month of the year here).</p>

    • anchovylover

      29 March, 2017 - 9:52 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#93921">In reply to Waethorn:</a></em></blockquote><p>What do you mean Waethorn?</p>

      • Waethorn

        29 March, 2017 - 10:17 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#93947">In reply to anchovylover:</a></em></blockquote><p>It was planned for March. I predicted it would be April. It makes more sense to be April.</p><p><br></p><p>Also, I bet it's no coincidence that it ships in the same week as Ubuntu 1704.</p>

        • anchovylover

          29 March, 2017 - 1:47 pm

          <blockquote><em><a href="#93964">In reply to Waethorn:</a></em></blockquote><p>Ubuntu 1704? Are you suggesting MS planned this release to overshadow Ubuntu? If you are I fear you are a little delusional. I can't tell if you're serious or not.</p>

          • Waethorn

            29 March, 2017 - 7:54 pm

            <blockquote><em><a href="#94031">In reply to anchovylover:</a></em></blockquote><p>Well, they are trying to bake it into Windows already. Or have you forgotten that?</p>

  • Tony Barrett

    29 March, 2017 - 9:25 am

    <p>I have a pretty big feeling that the CU is going to be a major disappointment to most, ie, there will be no obvious changes, and only a few improvements here and there (I say this from an end-user perspective, not developer, or MS themselves). Mixed reality support and 3D will pretty much go unnoticed, Game mode is looking to be a letdown from early benchmarks, the jury is still out on Edge, and as Chrome and Firefox (and to a lesser extent IE) are all better than Edge in many ways, most will carry on using them as they've always done.</p><p><br></p><p>I just can't see MS unleashing much with the CU, let alone creativity.</p>

    • navarac

      29 March, 2017 - 9:33 am

      <p>You just about sum it up, and that's from an insider using it since day one. I think the average normal person won't see half of it.</p>

      • Dan

        29 March, 2017 - 9:43 am

        <blockquote><a href="#93934"><em>In reply to navarac:</em></a></blockquote><p>Right. Users will see an update screen and that is about it. MR isn't something that anyone will see and Edge is a back seat driver to Chrome.</p>

    • anchovylover

      29 March, 2017 - 9:51 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#93928">In reply to Tony Barrett:</a></em></blockquote><p>What changes/improvements are you hoping for Tony?</p>

    • matsan

      29 March, 2017 - 10:08 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#93928">In reply to Tony Barrett:</a></em></blockquote><p>I see so many new features in this update for all business users on Windows 10… (ironic)</p><p>Personally I'd be very happy if we could put our Display Port monitors to sleep without having the windows messed up, or a working implementation of WOL from power off, but I guess it is more important to get Game Streaming and Paint 3D going…</p>

    • Waethorn

      29 March, 2017 - 10:18 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#93928">In reply to Tony Barrett:</a></em></blockquote><p>How is the malware pit that is IE supposedly better than Edge now?</p>

  • navarac

    29 March, 2017 - 9:27 am

    <p><em>"</em><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Creators Update is designed to spark and unleash creativity, bringing 3D and mixed reality to everyone and enabling every gamer to be a broadcaster,”&nbsp;</em></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">So, just 3 things that are of no interest on a Desktop PC, but there are improvements under the hood.</span></p>

  • rameshthanikodi

    29 March, 2017 - 9:29 am

    <p>I wonder how many people actually care about Paint 3D and Beam streaming? I would imagine that Twitch is what everyone wants.</p>

    • warren

      29 March, 2017 - 12:34 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#93931">In reply to rameshthanikodi:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Paint 3D should be pretty fun for kids. Hey, it's not like MS Paint had great aspirations either. </p><p><br></p>

  • Dan1986ist

    Premium Member
    29 March, 2017 - 9:30 am

    <p>Now the elephant in the room, when will Redmond be putting out culmative updates for those of us currently running Version 1703 in the Insider Program? </p>

  • Delmont

    29 March, 2017 - 9:35 am

    <p>The Defender updates are really good. Much better detail.</p>

  • wolters

    Premium Member
    29 March, 2017 - 9:54 am

    <p>Forgot about the Night Light Feature. F.Lux is good but like to have something more integrated like this. I did grab the update yesterday and was really looking for details on the new features. Thanks for this post…</p>

  • anchovylover

    29 March, 2017 - 10:12 am

    <p> <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(230, 240, 250);">I'm running it now and it is a solid update. No bugs to speak of, at least for me. A few new apps installed like MS Wallet and 3D Paint. Check your settings though as a couple of mine had been changed, only took five minutes to do that. The left hand side of the start menu has a few icons that can't be removed now and right clicking start menu has lost the control panel link. That may annoy some users I think.</span></p>

    • warren

      29 March, 2017 - 12:47 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#93963">In reply to anchovylover:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>A lot of stuff has disappeared from the Control Panel in this release (e.g. Display, Personalization, Screen saver, VPN connections), and almost everything that's still stuck in there (e.g. HomeGroup, Fonts) is easier to get at in Settings than before. You shouldn't ever need to see the old Control Panel home page.</p><p><br></p><p>And if you do, press Start, type "panel", and hit enter. No big deal, right?</p>

      • anchovylover

        29 March, 2017 - 1:42 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#94009">In reply to warren:</a></em></blockquote><p>Agreed, as each build comes the Control Panel will ( and should ) be devalued.</p>

  • YouWereWarned

    29 March, 2017 - 12:49 pm

    <p>I expect that tax prep is one of the notable remaining uses of desktop PCs. Rolling out this major update just 4 days before a deadline that carries onerous consequences if missed seems ill advised. Save the "well you shoulda done them sooner" comments. April 20th would have been a much better choice given all that is known about human nature. Right, Cortana?</p>

    • palmpre

      29 March, 2017 - 1:01 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#94010"><em>In reply to YouWereWarned:</em></a></blockquote><blockquote><em>I had the exact same thought.</em></blockquote><p><br></p>

    • Oasis

      Premium Member
      29 March, 2017 - 2:36 pm

      <blockquote>and why start this on a MS Tuesday?….</blockquote><p><br></p>

  • JimP

    29 March, 2017 - 1:01 pm

    <p>Meh. Most of these features don't interest me. How about something useful like a good podcasting app, tabbed File Explorer or device encryption?</p><p><br></p><p>Sadly, the best feature of Redstone 2 might be the address bar in RegEdit. :(</p>

  • Aaron Kulbe

    29 March, 2017 - 1:33 pm

    <p>So is it safe to assume that Build 15063 is what will be released as the CU?</p>

  • garyprusso

    Premium Member
    29 March, 2017 - 1:43 pm

    <p> Now that the Creator’s update is shipping on April 11th, I expect the new hardware announcement to happen by the end of April.</p><p>My Timeline Thoughts:</p><ul><li>2017-04-11 : Creator's Update (Redstone 2) Rollout</li><li>2017-04-30 : New Hardware Announcement</li><li>2017-05-10 : Build 2017 Conference</li><li>2017-10-26 : Redstone 3 Rollout</li><li>2017-11-09 : Ship New Devices – Lumia 1050 XL, Surface Book 2, Mobile Studio, Band 3, 3rd Party AR devices, etc.</li></ul><p><br></p>

    • thisisdonovan

      29 March, 2017 - 3:12 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#94029">In reply to garyprusso:</a></em></blockquote><p>Lumia 1050XL?? Surely you're not serious? </p>

    • EZAB

      29 March, 2017 - 5:06 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#94029"><em>In reply to garyprusso:</em></a></blockquote><p>I like your timeline. I hope it happens. I was going to call it the Surface Elite 1050XL. Lumia is Dead. Mobile is not.</p>

  • Jules Wombat

    29 March, 2017 - 1:48 pm

    <p> Meh, The Creators Update is of very little significance or interest to most users. Certainly nothing here to inspire or reverse the decline in the use&nbsp;of Windows PC etc.&nbsp;Seriously&nbsp;how can anyone get excited about 3D Paint.</p><p>Microsoft have delivered very little in the nine months of Windows Development.</p>

  • dave0

    29 March, 2017 - 3:39 pm
  • Siv

    29 March, 2017 - 6:19 pm

    <p>And still no right-click refresh in Edge? Lots of stupid features that are of no use (WTF are tab previews for?, do you not know what pages you opened a few minutes ago?) and yet they can't give the feature that is in all the main browsers "refresh" on the right click menu!? That's why I won't use Edge until they fix that. I know I can press CTRL + R but it's muscle memory!</p><p><br></p><p>Also just discovered a bug if you open two tabs in Edge then preview the pages it won't close! I had to task manager it!</p>

  • nbplopes

    29 March, 2017 - 6:36 pm

    <p> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Considering the feature improvement an new features list why is this called Creators? Gamer Update would probably be a better fit, but would not please businesses as much. The rest are important improvements within the Windows world, nevertheless improvements. So how major is really this? </span></p>

    • CompUser

      30 March, 2017 - 2:12 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#94162"><em>In reply to nbplopes:</em></a> I don't get the&nbsp;cutesy names at all. What's wrong with just calling it Windows 10.1703.xx (with the third decimal place to indicate the monthly cumulative updates)? I also think that calling it Creator's Release, or Gamer's Release, or whatever, will confuse the vast majority of Windows users who don't specifically fit into one of those categories. I'm pretty sure most users don't think of Windows as anything other than what runs&nbsp;when they turn their computers on, and that it's what makes it possible to get to the Internet and to run the apps and programs that they use. They'll see the name and think, well I'm not really creating anything, or I don't play games on my computer, so this new Windows really isn't meant for me.</blockquote><p><br></p>

  • Steve Martin

    Premium Member
    29 March, 2017 - 7:09 pm

    <p>The only update I might be interested in is the Game performance improvements. What exactly are those?</p><p><br></p><p>Given that every company I've worked for in the past 15 years has supplied Mac's for it's developers, my only use for Windows is as a Game launching platform. So any real improvements there might be of interest, but I'd like a lot more details on what that is supposed to do. I generally tweak the machine to play games efficiently myself.</p>

  • kjb434

    Premium Member
    29 March, 2017 - 9:05 pm

    <p>The Windows Insiders site is now allowing the downloading of ISO containing15063 again.&nbsp; I guess after today's announcement of the rollout date on April 11th they decided to make the ISO available.</p>

  • getitfix

    03 April, 2017 - 6:19 am

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