Report: Microsoft Delays Windows 10 Spring Creators Update

Report: Microsoft Delays Windows 10 Spring Creators Update

Microsoft has been talking up the Spring Creators Update for Windows 10 in recent months, but there’s one big problem: It’s missing. The release was expected yesterday, but there are no reports of the update appearing on systems, and Microsoft hasn’t said a word. According to some unverified but totally believable online chatter, Microsoft has delayed the update because of a serious last minute bug.

Windows 10 has been out for several years now, but there’s no sign Microsoft is looking to move to a completely new version of the OS. Instead, it has taken to pushing out large feature patches every few months — these are the Creators Updates. The spring update for this year will add a number of cool features, including a shorter offline time during updates, the timeline multitasking view, and a refined do-not-disturb mode called Focus Assist. There’s also a diagnostic data viewer, allowing you to see all the telemetry data your computer sends back to Microsoft.

Windows Central’s Zac Bowden reports that Microsoft was planning to launch the Spring Creators Update on April 10th, which is a date that previously leaked several times. It also fits with the vague public timeline from Microsoft. However, Bowden goes on to say Microsoft’s engineers found a bug over the weekend that required a delay of the release. It’s not a short delay, either.

Got some more info on this: Microsoft was going to rollout on April 10, but found a blocking bug over the weekend that was bad enough to hold the release. Not sure if bug was fixed in 17133.73 or if it'll come in another patch. RS4 will likely begin rollout in a couple weeks now. https://t.co/qxcbHCdPUo

— Zac Bowden (@zacbowden) April 10, 2018

It may still be several weeks before the final version rolls out. Microsoft did start pushing a new build to Insiders several days ago (v17133.73), but it’s unclear if that build has a fix for the unknown bug. Just based on the timing, that seems unlikely. Bowden suggests it will be several more weeks until the so-called RedStone 4 build of Windows rolls out to the general public. The impact of the bug is apparently low, so Insiders should be able to cope. However, it’s serious enough that Microsoft wants to implement a fix before the general public starts using the new version.

Microsoft never officially confirmed the April 10th date, so it likely won’t comment on the delay. As far as Microsoft is concerned, there is no delay. It might be disappointing to wait even longer for this update, but you want it to work properly when it arrives.

Microsoft has its Build developer conference in early May. If it hasn’t released the Spring Creators Update by then, Microsoft will likely face some tough questions. It’ll be running short on “spring” at that point.

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