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Credit: Dreamstime
Microsoft, which has not given up on pushing frequent changes to Windows 10 user roles, has introduced the concept of Windows Feature Experience Packs as a way to increase the amount of times during a year when customers receive shiny new things.
Redmond released a preview of a first Windows Features Experience Pack for participants in the company’s Windows Insider beta program.
“By testing this process first with Windows Insiders, we hope to expand the scope and frequency of releases in the future,” wrote Brandon LeBlanc, senior program manager, in a company blog post. “Eventually, updates to the Windows Feature Experience Pack will be incorporated into the existing service process for Windows 10 and delivered to customers that way through Windows Update.”
These feature packages, for lack of a better shorthand, they’ve been bubbling up in Redmond for some time – two years ago, a Windows 10 support document mentioned them. ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, who reported on the LeBlanc post on Monday, also mentioned the Windows Features Experience Pack in June as it was being delivered to some users.
The idea behind feature packs, LeBlanc explained, is to ship “features and experiences” using a mechanism outside of the two-year feature update cycle already established for Windows 10. Such features and functionality could be installed independently of the operating system because they were Developed to be independent of the operating system, such as the Edge browser.
This debut included only two minor enhancements to existing features. The former allows users to save screenshots or screenshots captured by the Snip & Sketch tool in a designated folder, instead of automatically in the Images / Screenshots folder. The other supports a split keyboard for touch keyboard on 2-in-1 devices.
Windows Feature Experience Packs will be offered to users through Windows Update, as LeBlanc said.
Therefore, they will depend on the same service technology used to implement each month’s security update, the other monthly deliveries (including optional updates on the third or fourth Tuesday of each month) and, in particular, feature updates ” Minors “for Windows 10 shipped in November 2019 and 2020.
Ok, but why?
In 2019, Microsoft started a major and minor feature update cadence, where the first update of the year, the one released in the spring, was followed by a much smaller one in the fall. The former contained numerous features and additions or enhancements, and was delivered in the standard operating system upgrade form, requiring a complete operating system replacement.
The second included all the fixes released since the first, as well as a very limited number of feature additions; Due to its construction, it could be processed and installed as one of the multiple monthly updates. In fact, the entirety of the second “update” was embedded in the code of one of those monthly cumulative updates and then activated with a one-minute code snippet received later.
“Windows Feature Experience Pack updates will be delivered to Insiders through Windows Update, as will versions and cumulative updates,” LeBlanc wrote.
That feature means that Microsoft intends these updates to be substantially faster to process than a true feature update, even if they are not inconspicuous. (LeBlanc pointed out that a feature pack requires a device reboot, something a Patch Tuesday security update doesn’t do.) It also means that Microsoft expects these updates to occur much more frequently than feature updates, perhaps on a monthly basis.
The latter will likely affect business customers, specifically IT staff. As a group, IT has not been enthusiastic about Microsoft’s pace of Windows as a service; In a survey earlier this year, nearly six in 10 administrators surveyed said updates were rarely or not helpful.
Additionally, only 17 percent of administrators preferred the current update frequency of two per year, while 75 percent wanted only one update per year or one update every two years.
Microsoft’s update rate was effectively reduced from twice a year to just once a year from 2019, when it switched to the high-low cadence. Now thinking about increasing the frequency with Windows Feature Experience Packs?
Why?
Microsoft has never shown evidence that customers clamored for its Windows 10-as-a-service model, that they thought it made their rooms safer, or that those customers found Windows 10 a better operating system as a result of frequent updates.
In fact, since the debut of Windows 10 five years ago, even prior to Its launch: Users have complained about Microsoft’s upgrade practice, complaining about everything from its speed to its disruption, and questioning its value and Microsoft’s motives. Customers have adapted to the new service strategy because they had to, not because they wanted to.
The Windows Feature Experience Pack concept is more of the same. Almost equally important, the feature packs contradict Microsoft’s shift toward fewer updates, exemplified by 30 months of support for Windows 10 Enterprise updates and the once-a-year cadence for Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro. a what, yet another way to distribute updates? Again, why?
Microsoft should answer that and, for once, prior to gives the turn. Customers, particularly customers who pay on the business side, deserve it.
Tags Microsoft Windows 10
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