Sophos Cloud Optix
On 12 November 2019, users running Windows 10 version 1803 (the October 2018 update) or earlier on non-enterprise licenses will be required to upgrade to version 1903 (May 2019 update) or find themselves no longer able to receive monthly security updates.
According to Microsoft, from that date, Windows 10 version 1803 Home, Windows 10 version 1803 Pro, Windows 10 version 1803 Pro for Workstations, and Windows 10 version 1803 IoT Core will reach end of servicing, which means:
Windows Update will automatically initiate a feature update to ensure device security and ecosystem health.
Support for Windows 10 Enterprise users still on 1803 will end in November 2020.
Needless to say, despite recent warnings this was coming, the update demand is likely to come as a shock to many 1803 users who only received what is still the most widely used version of Windows 10 as recently as May 2019.
Machine learning model will push updates to users
How will users of 1803 or earlier know they must update? In fact, it seems they won’t – Microsoft will automatically make that decision for them.
The intriguing detail of how this will be done emerged earlier this week in a tweet by @WindowsUpdate:
📣 [Windows Release Health Update – New Message] We are beginning to train the machine learning based rollout process to update devices running the April 2018 Update, and earlier versions of Windows 10. Read more here: https://t.co/NHEQuEjsVX.
— Windows Update (@WindowsUpdate) June 18, 2019
In short, from this week, 1803’s days are numbered, but it is a machine that will make the decision about how numbered.
Factors influencing the upgrade decision will include whether the machine in question is deemed to be one suffering from any one of a list of known version 1903 compatibility issues, which will need to be resolved first.
The caution is well-founded and painfully ironic. Last October, Microsoft was forced to pause upgrades to version 1809 when users reported losing access to files – precisely why some users decided to stick with 1803 in the first place. That was despite Microsoft boasting at the time…
One of our most recent improvements is to use a machine learning (ML) model to select the devices that are offered updates first.
And versions 1803 and later weren’t immune from problems either, for example Microsoft having to put updates on hold for some users with USB and SD Card storage.
What’s so great about 1903 anyway?
Eye-catching features which emerged from these struggles include the ability to pause updates for up to 35 days (before trying and perhaps pausing again) and the ability for Windows 10 to automatically roll back an update should it encounter a problem.
If you’re lucky enough to be running a Pro or Enterprise license, you’ll also get the intriguing Windows Sandbox, a “lightweight” hypervisor virtual machine which can be launched within Windows to isolate apps and suspect websites from doing bad things to the user’s PC.
All the talk of ML updating can’t avoid the impression that the Windows 10 age is turning out to be more complex than Microsoft expected.
Once upon a time, Windows users upgraded Windows infrequently and then, security updates aside, stayed on that version until the next big upgrade years later.
These days, Windows changes itself twice a year, with the odd feature update between times, and life has become more fraught. Are there Windows engineers who long for the old days – just like the users who reckon they’re happy with Windows 10 version 1803?
I suspect machine learning will be used to aid the selection of devices that it ‘thinks’ won’t get bricked by the update, Then we’ll watch MS boast more whilst they quietly fix major issues for the remaining devices.
If it helps mitigate a repeated performance of 1809, then great (and I’ll take my hat off to MS). But I and others could be ‘bricking it’ if not
I guess they are having the machines decide when to update to maximize the possibility that the upgrade will happen when I’m in the middle of something.
I was happy with (had only just learned my way around) Windows Vista. I’d prefer no further “improvements”
“AI”, an old buzzword now buzzing once again. What does AI have to do with pushing upgrades?
This seems to be a good thing. One of my primary computers is a Core 2 Duo with 4GB max (2.99 GB usable). I installed a Solid State Drive and the computer runs Windows 10 just fine, even with many apps and browser tabs open. Currently running version 1809, 64-bit.
I was concerned that future updates would require more resources, requiring me to replace the computer, just to keep running the same apps. But if they’re going to sample the environment with AI or ML and bypass installing things like valueless video enhancements (Vista, anyone?), that’s fine with me.
Naw they want you to store everything on the cloud
Peggy, the 4GB comment is working memory, not “disk storage.” When they bloat the operating system with valueless features, there’s not enough room for applications and they are swapped from memory to disk, causing them to run very slowly.
This has nothing to do with cloud storage of user data.
I installed the new update & twice had to uninstall because I COULDN’T open My Money program. Don’t write programs that delete your personal ones. gurrrrrrrrrrrr
I trust Microsoft about as far as I trust trust the 14 Eyes countries, which is about how far I can throw Roseann Barr into hurricane gale force winds.
I am using Windows 3.1 NT and I don’t have to deal with updates anymore. Make life so much easier.
Umm, WIndows 3.1 ran on top of DOS in real mode. Maybe you meant Windows 3.51, which was the first real NT.
3.1 Windows for workgroups allows you to connect via 10 base T Ethernet was not in production yet.
Maybe (please, please) they will use their “AI” like this:
“We see you’ve restored your printer driver, Trackpoint driver, and Winhelp code immediately after the last three updates, so this time we’re going to leave them alone and not gratuitously overwrite them. Please, please.
@Laurence
Your wish is my command line.Just kidding... I couldn't even 01110100011110010111000001100101 that with a straight cursor.
No Mr. Anderson, we will continue to inform you what you like.
–MS HAL 9000, v.2019
How exactly does machine learning help with this task???
Well, maybe Microsoft’s AI decided my laptop was due to be updated to 1903 but it still screwed up the machine.Not trying that one again until the bugs have been sorted.
We’ve already switched 90% of our dt/,lt to Linux. Microsoft can KISS MY A$$!!!!
I’m going to upgrade to a pencil and
Just another way for Microsoft to collect data and force advertising on consumers. If Microsoft cared about security they would have fixed the bugs years age. Linux is the only way to go and I am less sure of them everyday.
I actually want to see all our machines update, but last I looked, Microsoft still have updated any of them beyond 1803. These are all home and pro and therefore should be getting the update. We’re receiving patches but not major updates and I don’t know why
Maybe they’ve already started this “AI” program. My 2007 Core 2 Duo (Intel 945 chipset, 3GB max usable memory) has been upgraded as has my somewhat newer but also low-end Lenovo X-11 with Pentium processor and 8GB. These are both running Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit. Are yours 32- or 64-bit?
After the Octobre update fiasco, I trust Microsoft about as much as I would trust a kid alone in a candy store when it comes to their “updates”. For every time they do, they break something on my computer. I had to have Windows 10 completely re-installed, and I lost all my files that I had not backed up on a thumb drive. Back-up does not work any more, and I lost my touch screen programme due to updates a year prior to that. All Microsoft seems to know how to do is break things, and when I ask for help, they tell me to piss off. If only Tim Cook had not sent his operations to China, given the Chinese the back doors to Apple, and then told American to go to hell, I would buy a Mac next time.
A person more cynical than myself would suggest that your loss of files is part of a plot to get you to subscribe to Microsoft’s Cloud Service, OneDrive.
If this ever happens to you again, take the drive out of your computer, and put it in a SATA-to-USB adapter. Plug that into another computer and copy everything important from the drive before doing anything else to it.
@John E Dunn Don’t you mean “as recently as May 2019” in the 4th paragraph?
Yes I did – thanks for the correction to that glaring error.