Microsoft’s unprecedented bungling of the final release of Windows 10 version 1803 has an interesting side-effect. So if you used my tip to upgrade to this release during the so-called “magic window” period, you got some work to do.
To recap, Microsoft originally intended for build 17133.1 to be the final release of Windows 10 version 1803. And the firm originally intended to start the staged public release of this version, via the “Redstone 4” feature update, last Tuesday.
Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!
"*" indicates required fields
That didn’t happen. And while Microsoft was awfully quiet about what went wrong for the past week, it finally opened up today with the release of build 17134.1, which is the new “RTM” build of Windows 10 version 1803.
“Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17134 (RS4) has no new features and includes the fixes from KB4100375 as well as some fixes for general reliability of the OS,” Microsoft’s Dona Sarkar explained. “As Build 17133 progressed through the rings, we discovered some reliability issues we wanted to fix. In certain cases, these reliability issues could have led to a higher percentage of (BSOD) on PCs for example. Instead of creating a Cumulative Update package to service these issues, we decided to create a new build with the fixes included.”
Historically, Microsoft has fixed post-RTM issues via cumulative updates, so it’s unclear why they needed to halt the rollout of this release in order to create a new RTM build. But they did.
And that has ramifications for anyone who upgraded to what was originally the RTM build of Windows 10 version 1803 using my tip. Yes, build 17134 will quickly make its way down through the Insider rings system, hitting the Slow and Release Preview rings over the next few days. But if you want to upgrade to the new RTM build now, you’ll need to go through the “magic window” trick again.
Which goes like this.
Because the magic window is here. Again.
dontbe evil
<blockquote><a href="#263326"><em>In reply to arunphilip:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>exactly, MS never announced or released it to the public officially, only to insiders … ah "journalism"</p>
Hifihedgehog
<blockquote><a href="#263425"><em>In reply to Biff_Henderson:</em></a></blockquote><p>The comedy of errors here is Thurrott has been treating Insider development builds like release builds. They are not. Microsoft is doing what any development team does since problems will occur during development: they delay their release window, retest and if everything passes muster, then they pass it on to the public. The funny thing is since the Insider program allows us to see development more in real-time, people like Thurrott have elected to treat it like a secondary stable release channel. Incorrect. These are development builds and should not be judged as anything different. On the other hand, if Microsoft released this to the public, then we should be talking (see also Vista and ME for good examples of unstable pre-release crap being shoveled out to the public).</p>
Hifihedgehog
<p>“<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Microsoft’s unprecedented bungling”</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ahh… more classic Thurrott muckraking. The Windows Insider program is pre-release Windows builds. Don’t treat these builds like they are a release product—they’re not. Prior to the Insider program, we were largely ignorant to such problems through Microsoft’s development team’s firewall. So now when we see the problem solving process of actual real-world development in real-time, we get arm chair bloggers like Thurrott who get all fussy, almost like many stock market investors who cannot handle stock corrections without having a heart attack. The point being: delays do and will happen and this is part of the reality of development. The real problem is if Microsoft shovels out crap to customers before it is ready. That is bungling. (See also Windows ME and Windows Vista.) This is not. They elected to not to that here. So it is undergoing more testing and then it will be released as RTM. Nothing to see here, folks.</span></p>