Microsoft is taking an extra cautious approach to the rollout of the latest Windows 10 feature update. Windows 10 version 1903 should be released to the general public soon. Should you install the new update or wait?
« Once burned, twice shy. » That’s good advice if you’re working around a hot stove. It’s an equally wise strategy for anyone responsible for administering Windows 10 PCs.
After the disastrous rollout of Windows 10 version 1809, you should indeed be extremely wary of touching that hot stove. Microsoft had grown cocky after a handful of relatively trouble-free feature updates to Windows 10, and had even bragged about how quickly it was able to roll out those semi-annual feature updates. That hubris caught up with them in late 2018.
Only days after rolling out version 1809 to the public, a pair of data-destroying bugs forced the company to pull the update from its servers. It took more than five weeks before the update was relaunched.
That painful experience inspired Microsoft to rethink its enthusiasm for those every-six-months updates. In the wake of the version 1809 debacle, the company promised major changes in the way it tracks product release, including a renewed focus on product quality.
One of those major changes was a deliberate slowing down of the rollout process for the next feature update. Microsoft’s engineering team signed off on the 1903 release, build 18362, in mid-March 2019. Under the previously established norms, that release would have gone to the general public beginning in April. That’s not happening this time around.
Because of the slower rollout process, what would previously have been an April update is now officially the May 2019 Update for Windows 10 (version 1903). And as we approach the end of May, that update is still undergoing testing by members of the Windows Insider Program as well as corporate customers and developers who have access to early releases of Windows 10.
For now, if you want to upgrade a Windows 10 PC to version 1903, you’ll need to use one of the following techniques:
When you try either technique, there’s a good chance you’ll encounter the following error message:
That generic message is misleading.
