New Redstone 4 RTM Build Resets the Magic Window

New Redstone 4 RTM Build Resets the Magic Window

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.

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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.

  • Open Settings and navigate to Update & Security > Windows Insider Program.
  • Click Get Started to begin the process of enrolling your PC back into the Insider Program.
  • Sign-in to your Microsoft account as directed and choose “Active development of Windows” and then “Fast” as you step through the wizard. Reboot when requested.
  • After you reboot and sign-in, open Settings, navigate to Update & Security, and click “Check for updates.” Windows 10 build 17134.1 will download and install.
  • After the new build is installed and the PC is upgraded, you can unenroll the PC from the Windows Insider program using the steps provided in Tip: The Magic Window for Windows 10 RS4 is Here.

Because the magic window is here. Again.

 

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Conversation 41 comments

  • Ben Moore

    16 April, 2018 - 8:23 pm

    <p>How do I get <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">17134.1 if I created an ISO and installed 17133.1 over 1709? Do I just wait for it to come in Windows Update?</span></p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      16 April, 2018 - 8:33 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#263281"><em>In reply to fastoy:</em></a></blockquote><p>You will need to do as described in this post. 🙂 </p>

      • Ben Moore

        16 April, 2018 - 11:52 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#263282"><em>In reply to paul-thurrott:</em></a></blockquote><p>Sorry I wasn't clear. I didn't get to 17133.1 through the Insider Program. The article talks about "17134 will quickly make its way down through the Insider rings system."</p><p><br></p><p>I just created an ISO and installed over 1709. Will MS push something like a Cumulative Update to 17133.1 to get it up to 17134.1 or later?</p><p><br></p><p>And yes I can always just install another ISO on top of 17133.1.</p>

        • alexangas

          17 April, 2018 - 4:21 am

          <blockquote><a href="#263329"><em>In reply to fastoy:</em></a></blockquote><p>I created an ISO from 17133.1, did a clean install, and then had to re-enrol in the Insider Programme. If you make sure you are configured to be in the Insider Programme as described in the post, you should get the update.</p>

        • Bart

          Premium Member
          18 April, 2018 - 4:23 am

          <blockquote><a href="#263329"><em>In reply to fastoy:</em></a></blockquote><p>Just go into the Fast Ring. That way you will get updated to 17134.1 right now</p>

  • Purian23

    16 April, 2018 - 10:19 pm

    <p>"Paul is a chump" continues… </p>

    • jbinaz

      17 April, 2018 - 5:59 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#263309"><em>In reply to Purian23:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>And yet, here you are not only reading, but commenting.</p>

    • Bart

      Premium Member
      18 April, 2018 - 4:21 am

      <blockquote><a href="#263309"><em>In reply to Purian23:</em></a></blockquote><p>"You being a dick hiding behind an internet alias" continues…. slow clap</p>

  • jennyc

    16 April, 2018 - 11:38 pm

    <p>Not sure how this constitutes "bungling" the RTM of 1803. They found a show-stopper, and elected to delay the release and fix it;. In short, they elected to do the right thing and not bother with a Cumulative Update. which would have been released who-knows-when to the howling from pundits about how Microsoft botched the release. It's a no win situation, AKA Catch-22 or in Star Trek terms, the Kobayashi Maru. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">Give Microsoft some credit for doing the right thing; they earned that much. </span></p>

    • BoItmanLives

      17 April, 2018 - 2:53 am

      <blockquote><a href="#263323"><em>In reply to jennyc:</em></a></blockquote><p>The "right thing" would've been to test more thoroughly internally by the QA division that they laid off, instead of relying on their customers to be unpaid beta testers.</p><p><br></p><p>These goofy Mega Creativity Feature updates never add anything meaningful anyway. They're mostly a ruse to hijack your program defaults again, browser to edge, reset all your settings back to MS defaults and reinstall all the candy crush type crapware. Enjoy.</p>

      • timwakeling

        17 April, 2018 - 5:46 am

        <blockquote><a href="#263351"><em>In reply to BoItmanLives:</em></a></blockquote><p>I understand your frustration, but seriously it is impossible in programming to catch every possible problem in advance. It feels like it should be possible until you try, and then you start to realise how many millions upon millions of possible combinations of user input, third party code and settings there are to take into account, and you quickly realise it's humanly impossible to get it perfect. Even if every human on the job had good, fully healthy and on-the-ball days every time they checked in code, which we all know people don't. :)</p><p><br></p><p>As an aside, I believe they fixed the "reinstalling the crapware" problem a few versions ago. The FCU for a start didn't put Candy Crush back on my machine. (Though I agree with you that most of that junk shouldn't be installed with Windows in the first place.)</p>

        • sonichedgehog360

          17 April, 2018 - 12:15 pm

          <blockquote><a href="#263380"><em>In reply to timwakeling:</em></a></blockquote><p>^This. Using Windows 10 Insider builds is like using a nightly or beta releases: they are going to have problems. And sometimes, errors pop up later in development, necessitating a delayed internal release window. The real newsworthy articles with Thurrott’s tone should be happening when Microsoft elects to release an unstable product to the public. Since they saw a problem late in development and did the right thing to delay it, we should be happy this is not going to the public in an unfinished form like some of Microsoft’s earlier OSes (e.g. ME and Vista). To repeat: contrary to Thurrott’s belief, the Insider program is not a forked secondary stable release channel nor should it be treated as such and what we are seeing is what is supposed to be happening in a development channel.</p>

      • NT6.1

        17 April, 2018 - 5:02 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#263351"><em>In reply to BoItmanLives:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Basically. Microsoft is a multi billion company. There's no excuse for builds being delayed because of bugs.</p>

  • arunphilip

    16 April, 2018 - 11:45 pm

    <p>Did Microsoft commit to a date and miss it? Or did we just assume a release date based on its progression through the various rings? To me, it feels like the latter, in which case calling it "bungling" seems a tad harsh. </p>

    • dontbe evil

      17 April, 2018 - 4:29 am

      <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>

  • madthinus

    Premium Member
    17 April, 2018 - 12:03 am

    <p>The one time Paul I listen to you and look what happens <img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="?" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.4/svg/1f631.svg"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="?" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.4/svg/1f923.svg"></p&gt;

  • Dave

    17 April, 2018 - 1:51 am

    <p>Unnecessarily harsh Paul. They did the right thing – found a major issue and pulled the release. Full marks to Microsoft.</p>

    • jecouch66

      Premium Member
      18 April, 2018 - 12:06 am

      <blockquote><a href="#263345"><em>In reply to Dave:</em></a></blockquote><p>Have to agree with you here. Not sure I'd call this bungling.</p>

  • Bart

    Premium Member
    17 April, 2018 - 4:12 am

    <p>To make use of the magic window, I tend to just switch between Fast Ring and Release Preview Ring. Saves all the hassle of signing in etc and you eventually end up on the GA build anyway.</p>

  • Alastair Cooper

    17 April, 2018 - 5:03 am

    <p>17133.1 is working fine for me just now (wasn't able to roll back unfortunately) and turning on 'Fast Ring' tries to push other pre-release updates for my PC. So I think I'll probably wait until the new RTM is officially released to GA (and stick with that in future rather than trying to jump the gun).</p>

  • timwakeling

    17 April, 2018 - 5:52 am

    <p>I upgraded to 17133 and then opted back out of the Insider Programme. Do you think I will get the final release automatically through Windows Update when it's released to the non-Insider masses, or have I got myself stuck in "Insider World" by installing this interim build?</p>

    • Alastair Cooper

      17 April, 2018 - 6:02 am

      <blockquote><a href="#263381"><em>In reply to timwakeling:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>I think if it doesn't update automatically it will be possible to download the ISO for the final version and do an in-place upgrade.</p>

      • timwakeling

        17 April, 2018 - 6:05 am

        <blockquote><a href="#263382"><em>In reply to Alastair_Cooper:</em></a></blockquote><p>True. My hunch is that it will probably upgrade automatically to the public release, but at least that's a backup method. We shall see… :)</p>

  • chrishilton1

    Premium Member
    17 April, 2018 - 6:46 am

    <p>Once I've signed in (point 3) I get three options, none of which are "Active development of Windows". They are "Just send me early updates", "The next version of Windows", or "Skip ahead to the next Windows release". Which one should I choose? I'd rather not get it wrong and end up on RS5.</p>

    • Grimwar

      17 April, 2018 - 4:34 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#263403"><em>In reply to chrishilton1:</em></a></blockquote><p>I used the <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">Skip ahead to the next Windows release and after the Reboot, I choose the Fast Ring. ATM downloading 17134.1, will use Stop Insider Preview builds after the install.</span></p>

    • Bart

      Premium Member
      18 April, 2018 - 4:18 am

      <blockquote><a href="#263403"><em>In reply to chrishilton1:</em></a></blockquote><p>Hi Chris, if you choose "just send me early updates", you will get the April 2018 Update in the next few days. There after, you will remain on the stable build. The only difference with people outside of the Windows Insider program is:</p><ul><li>You will get updates (for the stable build) a couple weeks early</li><li>You will get app updates which might be beta versions</li></ul><p>Hope this helps.</p>

  • scoob101

    17 April, 2018 - 8:33 am

    <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);">Paul, sometimes your tone really sucks, and for no good reason.</span></p><p><br></p><p>This is is a process working as intended. Its not a screw up, it is not incompetence. They trapped an issue prior to committing to the release, and they fixed it. Thats caused a delay, sure, but a deliberate delay is way better than putting a release out to production with serious known issues in it. </p><p><br></p><p>Delays happen. Get over it. Nobody died.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

    • pachi

      17 April, 2018 - 12:38 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#263415"><em>In reply to scoob101:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>I agree, this is a good thing!</p><p>What gets to me at all is that they thought that 17133 was worth shipping at ANY point. IT was very quirky and full of tiny bugs/glitches. Did they find something larger and decide to pull it, or did they realize that small bugs are not worth shipping (finally). Installing the newer build now and hoping it is better and more refined. I am doubtful from only two extra weeks but you never know</p>

  • Biff Henderson

    17 April, 2018 - 9:37 am

    <p>So the product does not get released on the day a blogger predicted that it would be released and somehow this becomes Microsoft's unprecedented bungling. Ugh! The blogger is always a negative, pessimistic, wet blanket when delivering any Microsoft news. Blogger is to Microsoft like CNN is to Trump. It gets old. Stop being miserable all the time.</p><p>Smile!!! Enjoy life!!!</p>

    • Mestiphal

      17 April, 2018 - 11:07 am

      <blockquote><a href="#263425"><em>In reply to Biff_Henderson:</em></a></blockquote><p>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.</p><p><br></p><p>I don't see how it's unclear that Microsoft will prefer to ship out a working product than two separate downloads one just the fix the previous</p>

      • arunphilip

        17 April, 2018 - 11:13 am

        <blockquote><a href="#263463"><em>In reply to Mestiphal:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>I think its because a BSOD, and a BSOD would significantly impact the user experience, they didn't want to treat it as something to fix via a cumulative update, but instead chose to fix it in the RTM itself. </p>

    • Hifihedgehog

      17 April, 2018 - 11:54 am

      <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>

  • Waethorn

    17 April, 2018 - 11:18 am

    <p>"<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">reliability issues could have led to a higher percentage of (BSOD) on PCs"</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In a nutshell, this explains the problem with Windows 10.</span></p>

  • Hifihedgehog

    17 April, 2018 - 11:46 am

    <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>

  • andreju

    17 April, 2018 - 1:18 pm

    <p>I was planning on doing a clean install of the new Windows 10 RS4, but because of these delays I don't think I can wait any longer. Question: If i upgrade in the magic window to this new RS4 RTM and do a reset from settings without keeping any old files or info, is that like a clean install?! will some stuff be left behind from old installation? </p>

    • NazmusLabs

      17 April, 2018 - 4:23 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#263499"><em>In reply to andreju:</em></a></blockquote><p>Reset is literally a clean install, yes. Thee is no need to use an iso for clean install unless your PC is unbootable. The reset functionality does the same thing but is quicker.</p>

      • Waethorn

        17 April, 2018 - 7:03 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#263590"><em>In reply to NazmusLabs:</em></a></blockquote><p>No it doesn't. It maintains drivers and updates. If your problem is with them, a PC Reset doesn't fix it. All that a PC Reset seems to do is wipe user accounts and user settings. System settings seem to be kept held over as well. A system registry doesn't get entirely reset back to the point of install during a PC Reset.</p>

  • Sandy

    17 April, 2018 - 8:28 pm

    <p>"<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">…it’s unclear why they needed to halt the rollout of this release in order to create a new RTM build.</span>"</p><p><br></p><p>I suspect this is why:</p><p>"…<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">these reliability issues could have led to a higher percentage of (BSOD) on PCs…</span>"</p><p><br></p><p>BSODs aren't like the lesser issues which have previously been fixed post-RTM. If a PC gets into a Stop/BSOD loop it won't be able to install an update <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">(requiring booting to recovery/WinPE &amp; using DISM to install a post-RTM update to fix the BSOD wouldn't go down well with the masses).</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">T</span>here would've been a tonne of negative publicity ('1803 bricked my machine!'), so MS absolutely did the safest &amp; best thing by pulling that build &amp; releasing a new RTM build.</p>

  • Mister_Loaf

    19 April, 2018 - 8:02 pm

    <p>I did a clean install of 17133 on April 1 (how ironic) and it has worked fine. Well, as "fine" as you can expect from Windows 10, which is still a big bag of donkey farts. </p><p><br></p><p>If you want the latest build, no need for "Magic Windows". No need to sign up for the Insider program. Just head over to the Windows 10 forum at mydigitallife.net and grab the UUP downloader script.</p>

  • lezmaka

    Premium Member
    19 April, 2018 - 9:46 pm

    <p>Or you know, actually wait for it the be officially released before upgrading?</p>

  • edboyhan

    21 April, 2018 - 12:52 am

    <p>RS4.134 hit my release preview machines today. From the time I received RS4 release preview 133 (on 4/6) until today (4/20), it seems like hardly any time passed at all. Neither of my release preview machines had any issues with 133. I never had any interest in accelerating access to my non-release-preview machines as those machines are very lightly used, and I'm comfortable waiting until MS decides to give them RS4 in the fullness of time. So far I'm not having any issues with RS4 (or RS5 on my skip ahead machines). My PC's are all relatively recent with no oddball H/W attachments — so I'm probably not a good barometer as to how MS handles feature releases.</p><p>My advice for the future: if you want fast access to the GA release of a feature update, put the machine on the insiders release preview ring. For most of the lifetime of a feature release the machine will be treated the same as all other non-insider PC's on the stable channel (you'll get all cumulative bug &amp; security updates for the stable channel) until about a week before GA wide release of the next feature update — at which point you'll get early access to the coming feature update — no need for any "tricks". However, it does require you to do a little advance planning 6 months in advance as to which PC's you want to get this fast GA access. For me, it makes sense to put my two daily driver machines on the release-preview ring — there's little apparent downside.</p>

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