It looks like Microsoft has finally worked out the kinks: The Anniversary Update is now installed on 77 percent of Windows 10-based PCs. That’s double the figure from a month ago.
I first reported this surge in Windows Device Stats: Windows 10 Mobile and HP Elite x3 Both Stumble in October. But this bears a closer look, as many readers have asked about the slow deployment of the Anniversary Update.
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
As you may recall, Microsoft released the Anniversary Update for Windows 10 back in early August, and those who do perform the upgrade will see that the OS has been upgraded to version 1607. For the first few weeks of availability, there was little indication that anything was wrong—a strange freeze issue notwithstanding—but then the problems started. (Microsoft finally fixed those freezes issues weeks later.)
Brad was among the first to report that the Anniversary Update was breaking webcams, an issue I later dubbed Webcamgate. Then, we discovered that plugging in a Kindle could Blue Screen a Windows 10 version 1607 PC.
When it finally became clear that the Anniversary Update wasn’t as bug-free as we had hoped, I called on Microsoft to halt development of Windows and enact a Reliability Initiative. I still feel this is needed.
But then a late August look at Windows device usage stats brought home what was happening with the Anniversary Update:Microsoft had quietly slowed down the deployment of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update specifically because of the problems it had experienced.
At that point, Windows 10 version 1607 was running on just 16.2 percent of Windows 10-based PCs. It September, it nearly doubled, to 35.5 percent. And this month, it did so again, hitting 77 percent. So it’s reasonable to think that the Anniversary Update will indeed be fully deployed by the end of November. That doesn’t mean 100 percent, of course: Some businesses will stick with earlier versions for whatever reason. But it means, I think, that the problems are finally behind us.