The Why, When, What, and WTF of Windows 10 Version 1803 (Premium)

Patch Tuesday came and went without the planned announcement about Windows 10 version 1803. What happened?

Actually, that's just one of the questions I have.

First, here's what I know. Microsoft had originally planned to announce its first public release milestone for "Redstone 4"---the feature update that will upgrade Windows 10 to version 1803---yesterday. And despite some Microsoft documentation using this name, Redstone 4 will not be called the Spring Creators Update.

But on Monday, multiple sources told me that this release would be delayed. I wrote a post, but held onto it hoping for more information. I want to know what had happened---the "why"---and I went to know what the new schedule was (the "when").

On Tuesday, Microsoft didn't announce the release or any information about the Redstone 4 feature set or schedule. Indeed, I find it odd that I've never received a reviewers guide or even a short "what's new" list for this release, and I'd expected to see such a thing well before this week.

What Microsoft did announce---quietly, by editing for the fourth time a two-week-old blog post---was that it had released a cumulative update, KB4100375, for what is broadly understood to be the final (RTM) build of Windows 10 version 1803. This update will increment the build number in a very minor way, from 17133.17 to 17133.73, and it addresses three security issues that might explain the delay:

A PDF security issue in Microsoft Edge.
An issue in Internet Explorer that prevents it from identifying custom controls.
Security updates to Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft scripting engine, Windows kernel, Microsoft graphics component, Windows Server, Windows cryptography, and Windows datacenter networking.

That last one looks problematic, doesn't it? Without any confirmation from my sources, I'm going to guess that that is the issue that prevented this week's launch. That one or more of those updates are so serious that they didn't want to commit 17133.17 to ISO and have it out in the world, compromised, for perpetuity.

So that's the why.

As to the when, one can only guess given Microsoft's silence. Some have pointed out to me on Twitter that the rollout schedule for the previous Windows 10 feature update, the Fall Creators Update, came one week after a Patch Tuesday, so moving everything forward a week might make sense. But my understanding of the now-lapsed schedule for Redstone 4 suggests that Microsoft could kick things off at any time. So it is possible that we'll hear something official before next Tuesday.

And then there's the "what." What is this update really called? What's the name?

Finally, there's the "WTF." As in WTF has Microsoft been so quiet about all this stuff? It's not a state secret. It's just a minor feature update to Windows 10.

Long story short, I have no idea. Sometimes I just don't understand this company or its motives.