Windows 10 Creators Update Reached End Of Service In October
Microsoft's adoptions of a "Windows as a Service" strategy has so far been a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it has ensured that Windows 10 users won't need to wait too long for new features and, more importantly, critical bug fixes. On the other hand, Microsoft has been criticized for aggressively pushing users to update, often at inconvenient times. Those two sides will come crashing again in a few months as Microsoft starts reminding users to update their Windows 10 PCs or risk remaining unprotected in the scary world of connected computers.
Instead of the old paradigm of selling boxed Windows versions that often take years to develop, Microsoft has embraced a common software development and distribution paradigm made popular by smartphones. Two times a year it releases a new version of Windows 10, aside from the regular bug fixes and security patches it rolls out as needed and as soon as possible. And after 18 months, that new Windows 10 version reaches its end of life.
That time is coming close for the Creators Update, a.k.a. Windows 10 version 1703. Launched in April 2017, Microsoft announced that it will reach its end of service on October 9, 2018. That means that machines running that version will no longer receive even security updates until the update to something more recent.
Microsoft is already warming up its advertising engines to remind users of that. Windows Latest reports that reminders are showing up on the Microsoft Store for users still running version 1703. It recommends users to update to the latest 1803 version launched April this year. That said, "Redstone 5" should actually roll out around October as well.
It will, once again, be a mess for some Windows 10 users. Three years into the Windows 10 lifecycle, Microsoft still hasn't gotten updates down to a 't'. Just recently, it was reported that Microsoft will be using machine learning to determine the best possible time to reboot the system for an update. How accurate that will be, we'll know in two months.