All Quiet on the Redstone 4 Front
- Paul Thurrott
- Apr 16, 2018
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Note: While trying to address a comment spam-related issue, we inadvertently deleted our live content database earlier today. So after recovering our site backup, I had to repost this article. Unfortunately, we lost any earlier comments to the original version. —Paul
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A week ago today, I discovered that Microsoft was delaying the deployment of Windows 10 version 1803 (Redstone 4). So here’s a recap of what’s happened since.
Absolutely nothing.
Well, not literally. But I do find Microsoft’s silence on this topic to be rather strange. Granted, Redstone 4 is unique among Windows 10 versions in that Microsoft has never officially announced its full feature-set or provided reviewers with guides and other material so that they can cover it effectively. The silence isn’t just deafening, it’s bizarre.
Last Tuesday—the original date for Redstone 4’s public availability—came and went without a major new version of Windows. But those running the RTM build of Redstone 4—perhaps using my Magic Windows trick—received a cumulative update (CU) that incremented the minor part of the build number and addressed some serious-seeming security vulnerabilities.
That might have been the reason for the delay, as I surmised earlier. But I’ve still not heard. That’s concerning because it means that the reason(s) for the delay are isolated to a small group of people at Microsoft. I would imagine that most people at the company are as out of the loop on this one as we are.
The CU was apparently important enough for Microsoft to (sort of) document it in a blog post: It actually updated its original March 27 post for build 17133 to note its quality improvements. I feel like that warranted its own blog post, frankly. But I suspect the goal was to not draw attention to it.
Since that one and only mini-communique, the Windows team has maintained radio silence. I supposed that Microsoft could just quietly start shipping Redstone 4 at any time. But Friday came and went with nothing.
So now it’s Monday again. At this time a week ago, I was writing a post that I never published called “Windows 10 Version 1803 Suffers Small Delay.” I held off at first because I was waiting to hear on the cause for the delay. But that never happened—still hasn’t—and that CU release seemed to address it.
But now I’m not so sure. The silence isn’t helping.
As for the delay, it’s real, but it shouldn’t hurt Microsoft or Windows unless weeks go by with no news. Assuming it doesn’t, the new schedule won’t matter much to most people: Windows 10 version 1803 is acquired via a Windows Update-based feature update that will be rolled out to PCs over a months-long schedule. So if the beginning of that is delayed a bit, few would ever notice or care.
More to the point, Microsoft has never officially announced its schedule, so they can publicly claim that no delay occurred. Fair enough. Even though that delay is happening. And it getting longer and longer with each passing day.