Microsoft quietly delivers two Windows Update surprises
The upcoming Creators Update makes an early appearance, signaling its imminent arrival, and the first slimmed-down “delta updates” arrive for Windows 10.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-quietly-delivers-two-windows-update-surprises/
By Ed Bott for The Ed Bott Report | March 14, 2017 — 23:14 GMT (16:14 PDT) | Topic: Windows 10
Most of the IT world breathed a sigh of relief today as last month’s mysteriously delayed security updates for Windows finally arrived.
But without any fanfare, Microsoft tossed in a couple of additional surprises to celebrate this month’s Patch Tuesday.
First up was a small notice in Windows Update offering early access to the next big feature update of Windows.
Windows Update is now offering advance notice of the imminent arrival of version 1703.
That’s considerably more subtle than the pop-ups that appeared in advance of previous updates.
It appears in Windows Update, beneath the Update History link. On my test system running the latest Current Branch build, Windows 10 version 1607, it was only visible after I had successfully installed the latest cumulative update and then returned to Windows Update.
The “Yes, show me how” link leads to a fairly bland “Coming soon” web page offering a few details about the upcoming release of version 1703 and information on how to get an early look by signing up for the Windows Insider Program. (If you follow my Windows 10 tips collection, you already had detailed instructions on how to cut to the front of the line.)
Today’s other Windows Update news is potentially far more significant, especially for harried IT pros trying to stay on top of the new Windows-as-a-service release cycle.
The first “delta updates” for Windows 10 version 1607 and Windows Server 2016 are now available in the Microsoft Update Catalog. If you search for KB4013429 (the official Knowledge Base ID for the March 2017 Cumulative Update to Windows 10 version 1607), this is what you’ll see.
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1. Tower Totals: 2xSSD ~512GB, 2xHHD 20 TB, Memory 32GB
SSDs: 6xOS Partitions, 2xW8.1 Main & Test, 2x10.0 Test, Pro, x64
CPU i7 2600 K, SandyBridge/CougarPoint, 4 cores, 8 Threads, 3.4 GHz
Graphics Radeon RX 580, RX 580 ONLY Over Clocked
More perishable
2xMonitors Asus DVI, Sony 55" UHD TV HDMI
1. NUC 5i7 2cores, 4 Thread, Memory 8GB, 3.1 GHz, M2SSD 140GB
1xOS W8.1 Pro, NAS Dependent, Same Sony above.
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