No, Microsoft Didn’t Promise Sets for the Next Windows 10 Version (Premium)

Microsoft's communications missteps are legion, and the firm found itself in familiar hot water this week. The issue? A tabbed window feature called Sets may not be ready in time for the next version of Windows 10.

So here's the caveat that sort-of saves Microsoft from the ravaging that they so often deserve: In the email message to Windows Insiders that announced this feature, Microsoft's Terry Myerson does technically raise the possibility that this might happen. That is, 797 words into an 853-word message, he relates the following pertinent fact:

"[Set and other features] ... are not necessarily tied to the next major update."

The communicator in me feels the need to point this out because it is not clear, or obvious. And I feel like them mentioning this fact early on, and even multiple times, would have been the better choice. But there it is. He does mention it.

There is one other very vague hint about Sets and other major new features possibly not making it in time for the next Windows 10 release, which is codenamed Redstone 4 and expected in early 2018. He notes in the second paragraph that Microsoft is "hard at work on future updates to Windows 10." Not the next update. But future updates.

This is possibly a change from previous versions, in the sense that Microsoft will typically discuss the next version, and that that is what Insiders are testing at any given moment. I don't recall any discussion about Microsoft working on multiple versions simultaneously. Regardless, this appears to be the first formal acknowledgment that Insiders are now testing features that may span multiple Windows 10 versions.

But the big issue is communications. It always is. And, to be clear, I'm not calling out Terry: It's not like he sat down at a computer and wrote that email message himself or in one shot. He has an army of employees that can fine-tune the messaging. Which is, ultimately, what makes this kind of thing so disappointing.

Doubly disappointing, I feel like my career has spiraled downward at times into being that guy who calls them out on these things. But don't shoot the messenger: I feel like it is important to now call out that this admittedly more minor infraction comes on the heels of the misdirections around Timeline, a feature Microsoft promised for RS3 and then pretended otherwise.

"Timeline, along with other cross-device features, was explicitly promised for the Fall Creators Update," I explained in Yes, Microsoft Did Promise Timeline for the Fall Creators Update. I provide many examples.

Anyway, Sets.

What's funny about Sets---and I mean funny odd, not funny ha-ha---is that there was already a lot of controversy around this feature when Microsoft announced it.

For starters, it was announced via an email message to Insiders, which was a first. Microsoft has a public blog for these kinds of announcements. Why on earth would it need an email message to communicate this?

Worse, Microsoft revealed t...