Windows 10 Redstone 3 coming in September, as Microsoft aligns Windows 10 and Office 365 updates

[ragnarok1968]

Via Neowin

By Rich Woods @@TheRichWoods · 23 hours ago · Hot! 34

Microsoft today announced its intention to align the release schedules for feature updates to Windows 10 and Office 365 ProPlus. In doing so, the company confirmed that the next Windows 10 update, codenamed Redstone 3, is targeted for September, 2017.

The firm also said that it's "committing to a predictable twice-per-year feature release schedule"; however, this statement leaves a bit of room for interpretation. 2016 only saw one feature update, which was the Anniversary Update, but Microsoft has still been offering two for every fiscal year, which actually starts in July.

Each release of the OS will be slated for 18 months of support, which is a shorter period than we're currently seeing. After all, the original version of Windows 10 (1507), will be dropped from support on May 9, almost 22 months after it was first released to Production.

Announcing a target month for a feature release is a departure from Microsoft's usual practices; for example, the company announced in October that the Creators Update would be coming in "early 2017", without providing any further specifics. Hopefully, this means that the company is trying to be more transparent about what's coming, and when.

As one might have guessed, there's no word about what increasingly seems like the forgotten side of the OS, Windows 10 Mobile. While only 13 phones are left supporting Insider builds, those aren't even from the Redstone 3 branch, so we don't even know for sure if handsets will receive Redstone 3, or the current 'feature2'.

With the September, 2017 target for Redstone 3, we can assume that the version number will be 1709. We haven't seen any major new features yet in the Insider builds, but we're expecting things like a new Project NEON design language, a shell that's adaptable to different devices and form factors, the MyPeople hub, Continuum features for phones, x86 app emulation on ARM devices, and more.

Indeed, this does seem like a lot of work to do over the course of the next five months, so it should be an exciting time for Insiders. We're likely to find out more about the specifics of Redstone 3 at Microsoft's Build 2017 developer conference, which kicks off on May 10. Neowin will be there, so make sure to check back in.

 

[ragnarok1968]

it is my understanding that before the Creators Update, that Redstone 3 won't be a heavy feature update mostly geared towards fixes and improvements.

 

[catilley1092]

On most of my machines, the W10 Creator's Update (upgraded by mounting ISO) turned out well, except on one machine, a Dell Optiplex 740 that's 11 years old (manufactured in 2006) & a pure miracle that W10 ran on it in the first place.

Maybe it was a bad upgrade, reverted to the previous build & all was OK. Will try a clean install, since the only licensed software on there is ESET Internet Security, and have the key for that. Yet at the same time, I realize that the end of support is coming for some machines, even if a clean install fixes things for now, the Redstone 3 upgrade may be the breaking point for older hardware. Maybe I can find a CPU with the needed instruction set, for this PC, these are now low in cost.

Hopefully for those who enjoys W10, Redstone 3 will offer newer features & become more of a leaner Windows. I say this because to this day, when compared to Windows 7 & 8.1, all on different machines, AV & AM scans takes a lot longer sometimes 2x more so, even on a fast SSD. Microsoft is going to have to address this & take action, it's a shame (really laughable) to have an AV scan (on SSD) run faster on a SATA-2 MB with Windows 7 or 8.1 than W10 on a SATA-3 MB & PCIe SSD.

Maybe Redstone 3 will get some of the lead out of W10, it's a shame their 'flagship' OS takes longer to perform these scans, even with the Windows Store Live Tiles (all except the Store itself, Weather & Photos) turned off.

Cat

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi Ragnarok buddy,
Looks like this article you posted has a typo in it here:

Each release of the OS will be slated for 18 months of support, which is a shorter period than we're currently seeing. After all, the original version of Windows 10 (1507), will be dropped from support on May 9, almost 22 months after it was first released to Production.

As we all know, W10 initial RTM was v1607 not v1507 as stated above. I wonder if anyone else caught that besides me??
Good information there.

As Cat states, there are going to be more important items that Microsoft needs to fix in Redstone, such as the Upgrade Assistant issue I talked about on the other W10 thread this morning. It's funny that I have a nearly identical Dell Optiplex 745, about the same age as yours (build date of 12/17/2007), a bit newer it will be 10 yrs. old this December. This failed to run the W10 CU Update with Ragnar's recommended Upgrade Assistant 5 times in a row. According to experts at Microsoft this is a problem with me! Bah-I don't think so!
I'm attempting the Clean Install on this one now; and I'll mention it's been upgraded from Vista-->W7-->W8.1-->W10 licensed on multiple occasions with no problem. **UNTIL NOW!**. For Microsoft developers reading this thread, please take note of this complaint.

I have given them Credit that the first computer I attempted to run the W10 CU on over last weekend, my Dell Studio540 W10 Pro main desktop computer worked perfectly with the upgrade (build date of Aug. 2008; it will be 9 yrs. old this summer). This is a big improvement over earlier releases, as no version of W10 (including TP releases back to 9/2014) has ever run the Upgrade so quickly; about 2 hours, nor run the 1st time to completion without incident. However the failure of the slightly older Optiplex 745 on W10 to update with W10 Home just shows how difficult this update process can be whether on older hardware or newer hardware--I have another thread today where I talked about the failure of W10 AT upgrade to work on both.

You may know from reading the various W10 threads here about the fact that NO hardware tested has ever been able to achieve W10 installation that was built prior to 2006 due to 3 missing instructions in the CPU chips out there (Intel, AMD, Via). I have personally tested this as have many other Techs here on WF and 4 other forums I am on along with other Techs I know. Your Dell is right on that bubble, and it did manage to work. However, you had to do a Clean Install as I'm having to do right now on my Optiplex 745. We did have a couple of guys tell us here and on other forums they managed to do a W10 install a couple of years back on machines built in 2004. When asked for full HW specs and documentation including photos & videos-they never responded back indicating they were blowing smoke at us!! 2006 is guaranteed to be the cutoff year for older hardware. This has been well documented now on the Internet and I've written several articles about it.

Part of the takeaway here is that W10 Redstone or some future version will eventually transmogrify enough to stop working with computers that are now 12 years old or older. This is no big deal as the only computer brand that I see working for more than 10 years these days in the field is DELL--no other computers will last 12 years, so we are only talking about 1 computer maker even going to be affected by this. Computer makers have been designing desktop computers now to last only 5 years before they are obsolete (exception is Dell), and laptops for 2 years. They have discovered it's cheaper to make stuff that breaks sooner and causes the customer to pay big bucks to get it fixed (often exceeding the initial purchase cost of the computer!) or to replace it with a new one. I'm sure everyone here who is an experienced Tech will accede to this. They have been going in this direction for 15 years, even before the first American computer company jumped ship and moved all their factories to China (HP) in 2005 or so.

Personally, I'd like to see them get the W10 update working on a much higher percentage of machines, say 95% of computers instead of the 10% or so they have been able to do. Many of my Customers are so tired of this they could jump off a bridge! It's simply way too complex for them to understand or comprehend. This is especially true of seniors born prior to 1946 (pre-boomers) who grew up in an age where computers didn't exist and so they don't understand them nor trust them. They would rather just go buy a new computer and not fight with all this update crap!

The pre-boomer who grew up in the depression however, are oft to do this, as they were taught to not throw a thing away just because it's old. So, many come to me to upgrade them. I still get requests to do XP upgrades, which I now refuse to do since last year (2016) since it's such a high-risk to turn these folks loose on the Internet with computers that have gaping security holes and no support on them.

Other features such as 3d imaging and fancy Gaming features to integrate with game consoles or other online gaming functions are of little interest to me compared to how easy or difficult it is for customers to get W10 onto their computers in the first place or to maintain them once they have them *the update crash debacle*.

Just some things to think about.
Best,
BBJ

 

[nmsuk]

As we all know, W10 initial RTM was v1607 not v1507 as stated above. I wonder if anyone else caught that besides me??
Good information there.

1507 was original RTM 1511 November update 1607 is Anniversary update and 1703 is Creators. They're completely correct and you're in error.

 

[catilley1092]

While in heart, I've been a Linux Mint user for over 8 years, yet I still assist many Windows users, on these forums & in person, so am hoping that this huge update will make for a leaner OS that'll run better on upper low to mid spec computers (the majority of the market). Not everyone has the cash for an OEM 'performance' build (I say that with a laugh), or is interested/capable of building their own.

For Windows 10 to succeed & come close to surpassing Windows 7 usershare, for now hard to envision, Microsoft is going to have to make major strides with every new build, including Redstone 3, to gain market share.

I'm hopeful that all of the new, cool features that Redstone 3 has laid out translates into more than the Creator's Update, which (for me) were more 'smoke & mirrors' than noticeable infrastructure improvements.

Given the amount of time before Redstone 3, there's more than enough to get this OS right so that the masses will begin to accept Windows 10, hopefully we'll see some true progress this time around. Consumers doesn't want to see bits & pieces of progress over two years, most of us (rightfully) wants it all from the go.

Hopefully Redstone 3 will give us more than all of the other major & minor updates of Windows 10 combined.

Cat

 

[kemical]

1507 was original RTM 1511 November update 1607 is Anniversary update and 1703 is Creators. They're completely correct and you're in error.

All this can be confirmed in the thread found here which is why we keep such databases:
Insider Preview - Windows 10 Insider Preview