In early October, we paused the rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update as we investigated isolated reports of users missing files after updating. We take any case of data loss seriously, and as I noted on October 9, we have thoroughly investigated and resolved all related issues.
In addition to extensive internal validation, we have taken time to closely monitor feedback and diagnostic data from our Windows Insiders and from the millions of devices on the Windows 10 October Update, and we have no further evidence of data loss. Based on this data, today we are beginning the re-release of the October Update by making it available via media and to advanced users who seek to manually check for updates.
As with all Windows releases, we will continue to carefully study the results, feedback and diagnostic data before we begin offering the update in phases to more devices in the coming weeks and months.
While the April Update had the fastest Windows 10 update rollout velocity, we are taking a more measured approach with the October Update, slowing our rollout to more carefully study device health data. We will offer the October Update to users via Windows Update when data shows your device is ready and you will have a great experience. If we detect that your device may have an issue, such as an application incompatibility, we will not install the update until that issue is resolved, even if you “Check for updates,” so you avoid encountering any known problems. For those advanced users seeking to install the update early by manually using “Check for updates” in settings, know that we are slowly throttling up this availability, while we carefully monitor data and feedback.
We plan to add a Windows update status dashboard in the coming year to provide more information on any issues that lead to update blocks. For this current October Update rollout we will be providing regular updates for notable issues on the public Window 10 update history page.
For our commercial customers, the re-release date of the Windows 10 version 1809 will also be today, November 13, 2018 (this includes Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server, version 1809). This date marks the revised start of the servicing timeline for the Semi-Annual Channel (“Targeted”) release. As previously announced and beginning with this release, feature updates that release around September will have a 30-month servicing timeline. Just as we phase our consumer rollout, we recommend IT administrators begin to validate that apps, devices and infrastructure used by their organization work well with the new release before broadly deploying. Windows 10, version 1809 is now available through Windows Server Update Services, Windows Update for Business and System Center Configuration Manager’s phased deployment. For additional information please see the latest IT Pro Blog.
Editor’s note: Information on a communications dashboard was erroneously left out of this post. It has since been updated to include those details.