What Happened to the Fall Creators Update We Were Promised? (Premium)

As Windows 10 Fall Creators Update development winds down, it’s time to examine whether Microsoft will come through on its promises for this release. This is no small issue, frankly: With Windows 10, the firm has a spotty track record doing so with every release.

And that’s a problem. Microsoft in general, and the Windows team specifically, absolutely intend to do the right thing, I’m sure of it. But they often do not. And as I’ve often observed over the years, the thing that Microsoft gets wrong most consistently is communications. This falls (ahem) into that category.

On a side note, Microsoft also gets branding horribly wrong. The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update isn’t just a bad name, it’s a name that doesn’t make sense on numerous levels. I took it to mean that Microsoft would use this update to actually deliver on the “creator” functionality it promised for the first Creators Update, and I still believe that to be correct. (In the sense that that was the intention.)

But as Brad pointed out earlier today, the Fall Creators Update branding is also wrong because most of the world doesn’t actually call that time of year “Fall.” In many cases, it’s “Autumn,” so Microsoft will actually call this update the Autumn Creators Update in certain locales. But for fully one-half of the world, that time of year is actually Spring. I have dubbed this thing the “Windows 10 I’ve Fallen And I Can’t Create Update.”

Speaking of which, Microsoft has never actually explained how arrived at the term “creator.” But I have a great guess: This is an attempt to wrestle a key influencer part of the market away from Apple. What I do know, however, is that the term is really just a new way of saying “productivity,” which has always been the PC’s strong suit. That is, you’re not a writer, you’re a creator of documents. Developers are creators, obviously. Gamers can be creators, too, by streaming their sessions live on Mixer. In other words, we’re all creators, using the loosest definition of the word.

And that kind of makes the name less special, when you think about it. If creating is something we all do, then calling it out as the brand seems kind of silly. As many have noted, and I will echo, Microsoft should stick to the year-based version numbers (Windows 10 version 1709 and so on) and leave the fun branding to sillier products. We use Windows 10 for work, and I wish Microsoft was a bit more serious about that. Plus, that kind of version number is immediately clear.

Well, it is what it is. Except for one thing: The Fall Creators Update is not what it is. Or rather, what it is supposed to be. At Build 2017, Terry Myerson and a succession of Microsoft executives stood up on stage and regaled us with the features we could expect from the Fall Creators Update. But as with the Creators Update before it, where I fact-checked a complete bogus promo video that is still inexplicably still available online, what we’re getting in no way measures up to what we were promised.

I don’t intend this as a hit job or whatever. But there is a ton of questionable commentary in this keynote, including Terry Myerson’s assertion that “Windows 10 is the most-used version of Windows on the planet,” which isn’t even close to being true: Windows 7 is used by twice as many people as Windows 10. These and other similar statements are so easily refuted, they’re confusing. But here, I’ll just focus on what Microsoft said about the Fall Creators Update.

First, Mr. Myerson noted that Microsoft would, on that day, focus on your [developers’] creativity. He announced three big investments in its Windows developer community, but only one—“Love + engagement across devices”—pertains to this discussion. (The other two are purely developer-focused.)

“With new capabilities in the next major update of Windows 10, we’re going to help you drive love and engagement for our shared customers in a growing device, input, and platform diverse world,” Myerson said. “Platform wars have made it harder for us, as creators, to reach our customers with clear, consistent experiences, customized for each device.”

The “Love + engagement across devices” topic has the phrase “Windows 10 Fall Creators Update” below it in the slide Myerson shows at the time. So as with Myerson’s opening comment—“in the next major update of Windows 10”—it’s clear that the features Microsoft discusses in this part of the keynote were intended for, yes, the Fall Creators Update.

“With that, I’m happy to share the next major update of Windows,” Myerson says, “the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.”

And from there, he and others went on to list the features we can expect in that update. They are:

Windows Story Remix. Described as a “new experience” and a “Universal Windows Application,” Story Remix was touted as “a new way to transform your photos and videos.” In a promo video and on stage, Microsoft showed off incredible AR and phone capabilities that, frankly, seemed impossible. So what has Microsoft delivered? A remix feature for the existing Photos app (not a new app) that provides only the most basic of capabilities that were shown off that day. And there’s no iPhone or Android app. (Obviously, features can be added to an existing app at any time, so this could change.) Fact check: FAKE

Fluent Design System. The new look and feel for Windows 10 will be rolled out over time and is evolving in-place. On this, Microsoft was actually quite clear. And the needs of a UX that works across mouse, ink, touch, gesture, and gaze, and on a diverse array of devices that include PCs, tablets, TVs, mixed reality headsets and (non-Microsoft) phones, is quite complex, I’d imagine. Fact check: REAL

Windows + Microsoft Graph. Arguably the best for the future of Windows, integration with the Microsoft Graph is key to the cross-device features listed below. “Today, we’re going to announce a set of features in Windows that will bring your files, and your activities, and even the live content you’re working on, from separate device islands into a unified, intelligent cloud,” Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore said. “The Windows PC will help you roam from device to device using the Microsoft Graph.” Since this one was presented as somewhat abstract and isn’t, in fact, a single feature, I’ll agree the underlying tech is there and give it a pass. Fact check: n/a

OneDrive Files on Demand. The first “Love + engagement across devices” feature is OneDrive Files on Demand, the replacement for OneDrive placeholders. And since this feature has already shipped in Windows 10 Insider Preview builds, Microsoft gets a nod. Fact check: REAL

Timeline. I already covered this topic extensively in Yes, Microsoft Did Promise Timeline for the Fall Creators Update. So let’s just agree that Microsoft has broken this promise and move on. Fact check: FAKE

Phone settings. “One of the things we’re working on in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update,” Joe B. says, providing a very specific (ahem) timeline, “is the ability to discover” a new Phone interface in Windows 10 Settings. This interface is the key to Windows 10’s new cross-devices experiences, and since none of these are actually happening, this interface has never shown up in the Windows 10 Insider Preview. Fact check: FAKE

Cloud-powered clipboard. Described as what Microsoft “hopes will be the best way to move live data quickly from one device to another.” Also explicitly promised for the Fall Creators Update, this feature is “Graph aware,” meaning you can copy items on one device and paste them on another. It has never appeared in any Windows 10 Insider Preview build. Fact check: FAKE

Windows Mixed Reality. Since no one actually has a Windows Mixed Reality headset yet—even the headsets Microsoft promised to developers at Build won’t ship until August—it’s impossible to do anything but call BS on this one. Maybe “this holiday,” as promised for consumers. Microsoft, August is“this holiday.” Fact check: FAKE

The rest of the keynote is mostly developer-focused, which is fine: Build is a developer show, after all. But that’s what they said about the Fall Creators Update, explicitly, for end users. And looking at the scores, I see the following:

REAL: 2 of 8
FAKE: 5 of 8

There’s still time for some of those to be fixed, but that’s not a great score. And while I don’t actually care that any of these features appear in this next release, I do care that Microsoft keeps making promises that it cannot keep.