Windows 10 Update - Taking it fast or slow

This post is a little late, as I wanted to comment on Microsoft's new update process when it was first released late last October. Like many others, I was pretty busy with the massive update from Microsoft for this November Patch Tuesday. 

You you can read more about about this series of Microsoft security patches and updates at my Computerworld blog found here. 

Windows 10 has not been officially released yet, but already we have seen a number of updates and in fact it looks like there is at least two update channels or tracks offered by Microsoft now.

As you can see from the following screen shot, you can choose either a "Slow" or "Fast" track for your Windows 10 updates.

Gabe Aul on his Windows blog says this about the new two-track update process;

"To put this into perspective, it’s helpful to understand what we call “ring progression”. Every day our build process compiles the latest changes our engineers have made and produces a build that is automatically sent out to our “Canary ring” – people in OSG who want to be the first to get started using and testing the newest code. Once we have validated with that group that the build is stable enough to use by more people, it is sent out to the next ring – all of OSG – where we validate it with that audience. From there we send it to tens of thousands of people here at Microsoft, and after it proves stable enough there, we make it available to you."

In addition to the two publicly available update tracks provided by Microsoft as part of the Windows Insider (Technical Preview) program there is a few more layers or rings (one is called the Canary Ring) that covers the initial builds from developers and internal testers.

Microsoft has provided a nice illustration of this process in the following diagram.

In addition, it looks like there is an Enterprise track as well, which you can find here.

It looks like Ars Technica is following this story as well, which can read more about here.