The Windows 10 October 2018 Update (1809): Let's Try This Again
by Brett Howse on November 14, 2018 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Software
- Operating Systems
- Windows
- Microsoft
- Windows 10
Back on October 2nd, Microsoft announced general availability for the latest update to Windows 10, the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. The new naming is improved over what they’d been doing in the past, where updates were called Creators Update or Fall Creators Update, and hopefully this continues. As a version, this update is Windows 10 1809.
But of course, the October 2018 Update wasn’t really available in October after all, since shortly after it was released for users to install manually, several serious data loss bugs were discovered that had slipped through testing, and the update was then pulled. There’s been plenty of discussion online on how this happened, and why it’s happened, but regardless, it’s caused a rather sizeable delay in the actual rollout of this second update for 2018.
This is unfortunate on a number of levels, with the first being that these bugs were actually reported during the preview releases to the Windows Insider Program, but they weren’t actioned, and second, as Windows 10 has matured since it first came out in 2015, the hope has to be that with fewer major feature changes in each update, updates should be less intrusive and cause fewer issues, but clearly Microsoft is not quite there yet. They’ve made some changes to the Insider Program, but time will have to tell if that helps or not.
Windows 10 Version History | |||||
Version | Version Number | Release Date | |||
Windows 10 Original Release | 1507 | July 29, 2015 | |||
November Update | 1511 | November 10, 2015 | |||
Anniversary Update | 1607 | August 2, 2016 | |||
Creators Update | 1703 | April 5, 2017 | |||
Fall Creators Update | 1709 | October 17, 2017 | |||
April 2018 Update | 1803 | April 30, 2018 | |||
October 2018 Update | 1809 | October 2, 2018 |
We’ve not heard of any changes to the current servicing model of two updates per year, although with both of the 2018 updates having major issues causing them to halt deployment, there’s still some concern over whether the current method is sustainable for Microsoft, and of course for the millions of business customers who have to test and maintain the OS in their companies.
But with the preamble out of the way, there are still quite a few new features for Windows 10 in the October 2018 Update which should make workflows a bit easier to manage, as well as plenty of smaller updates which we’ll go over as well. Microsoft has been focusing more on productivity features for Windows 10, which fits in well with where the operating system is most used, but they continue to improve security, privacy, and accessibility as well. Let’s dig into some of the new features coming with the Windows 10 October 2018 Update.
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mkozakewich - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
I laughed out loud in disbelief when I read it! I ran into that problem just the other day, so it'll be nice to finally have it fixed.imaheadcase - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
I like how every tech website narrowed in on the few people who had problems with file deletion like it was some epic disaster. Seems to be a running trend lately.It makes me wonder if i can submit news to some tech site, totally bogus, and see how many websites it catches onto.
MonkeyPaw - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
Well, MS pulled the update, so there must have been some credence to the claim. Deleting user data is a serious bug, if you ask me. It took a pretty serious bug to expose the flaws in the Feedback system—something that is supposed to make Windows 10 better.imaheadcase - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
Well yah, but that is like saying "careful buying this car, we have reports sometimes people crash".notashill - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
More like "careful buying this car, we have reports sometimes the car spontaneously catches on fire". Which has certainly been a problem with some cars.PeachNCream - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
Only if you buy a Tesla! :DTheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
Or a KIALord of the Bored - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
Or a GM.PeachNCream - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
Don't jinx me! I don't want my Buick to burst into flames!MonkeyPaw - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
It was a legit bug. It assumed some folders were empty even when they weren’t, deleting them instead of migrating them. Yes, we should all have backups before upgrading, but this was not the usual case of an upgrade going wrong and the system not being bootable. It was appearing as a successful upgrade, but it wasn’t migrating user data. From what I gather, it wasn’t even keeping the files in Windows.old—it was deleting them all.