At its Surface event in New York City, Microsoft announced that the Windows 10 October 2018 Update is starting to roll out today, on October 2,2018.
Microsoft today announced that the free Windows 10 October 2018 Update is rolling out today. For those keeping track, this update is Windows 10 build 17763 and will bring Windows 10 to version 1809.
Windows 10 is being developed as a service, meaning it receives new features on a regular basis. Microsoft has released five major updates so far: November Update, Anniversary Update, Creators Update, Fall Creators Update, and April 2018 Update. The sixth one arrives this month.
As you can see, Microsoft has stopped naming Windows 10 updates. The company is now simply sticking with the month and year of release (two free feature updates are expected every year).
The Windows 10 October 2018 Update brings a dark theme for File Explorer, a new snipping experience, a cloud-powered clipboard, support for extended line endings in Notepad, integration with the Your Phone app, new web sign-in and fast sign-in features, a mixed reality flashlight feature, SwiftKey in the touch keyboard, and many other improvements. The highly anticipated Sets feature did not make the cut.
Windows 10 adoption started out very strong, but naturally slowed as the months progressed. Microsoft was aiming for 1 billion devices running Windows 10 in two to three years but backpedaled on that goal.
The operating system was installed on over 75 million PCs in its first four weeks and passed 110 million devices after 10 weeks, 200 million in under six months, 270 million after eight months, 300 million after nine months, 350 million after 11 months, 400 million after 14 months, 500 million after 21 months, and 600 million after 27 months. In September, after 37 months, it passed 700 million devices.
