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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GreenReaper - Thursday, November 15, 2018 - link
The default for the shell-based deletion call is to delete all files and subdirectories within it a directory - as compared to just removing the directory if it's empty. Unfortunately whoever seems to have been unaware of this, or otherwise failed to properly check that it was empty first.FreihEitner - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
If the major feature of the 1809 update is the Your Phone app, then I shouldn't need it. I'm only on 1803 and I've got the Your Phone app which I installed from the Microsoft store. *confused*Spunjji - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
Lucky then that it isn't "the major feature", as even a casual glance at this article illustrates.nathanddrews - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
I've been using Samsung SideSync on and off for a while with my phones, but that's a bit more like a remote desktop/screen sharing for your phone. It really eats up the battery in my experience. Not only that, it requires a bit of manual effort to connect and disconnect. I'm tempted to see how this Your Phone feature works. All I really want to do is reply to messages from my PC and transfer files/photos between devices without killing the battery.ads295 - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
SideSync has serious issues in transferring files, too - it's so tedious to select "Transfer files" and have to click through each file in the list!PeachNCream - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
USB cable?Wingartz - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
so how do we get it?? from the meadia creation tool 1809 is this november update or still october??Targon - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
It's still considered 1809, so yes, the Media Creation Tool 1809 is the right one.Mr Perfect - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
1809 also brings DirectX Raytracing with it, right? I'd love to see how that pans out.Targon - Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - link
Even with 1809, software developers need to enable support for ray tracing in their programs, and the vast majority will not waste the effort on a feature that only three GPUs on the market will actively support right now, but with two of those not having enough performance for people to even bother keeping it turned on.