New Usage Milestone for Fall Creators Update with Successor Delayed

With Microsoft remaining silent on the interminable delays to the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, its predecessor has set a new usage milestone. The Fall Creators Update is now being used on over 92 percent of all Windows 10 PCs.

This is according to AdDuplex, the largest cross-promotion network for Windows apps.

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The Fall Creators Update had been skyrocketing in recent months, but the new tally, 92.1 percent, is a new apex. In March, this release had hit 90.4 percent, after reaching 85 percent of all Windows 10 PCs in use in February.

Meanwhile, the next major feature update for Windows 10, the April 2018 Update, has been delayed repeatedly, and mysteriously: Microsoft has briefly mentioned what sounds like some serious reliability issues that it has fixed. And last week, it shipped the new RTM build to Slow ring and Release Preview ring testers, indicating that the end is near.

But the April 2018 Update’s feature set was finalized in March, and Microsoft had originally expected to start shipping it publicly by mid-April. Now it appears that it won’t see the light of day until May. April Fools!

AdDuplex also looked at Surface PC usage this month, but things haven’t really changed month-over-month. Surface Laptop usage, at just 2.3 percent, is still suspiciously low, and below the usage of Surface Pro 1, Surface Pro 2, and Surface Book. And Surface Pro 4, with 34 percent of all Surface PCs in use, is still the most successful model so far.

 

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Conversation 16 comments

  • Daekar

    26 April, 2018 - 1:26 pm

    <p>So… this is actually really encouraging. Once time marches on long enough that Windows 7/8/8.1 start aging out (should be soon, now…) it looks like Windows 10, for all its goods and bads, will at least be fairly monolithic in its collective patching status.</p><p><br></p><p>This is what they wanted, and it looks like things are going to plan. It's way better than Android, and I never thought I'd say that.</p>

  • chrisrut

    Premium Member
    26 April, 2018 - 1:40 pm

    <p>But aren't we all glad they decided to fix whatever it was rather than release it?</p><p><br></p><p>On a personal contribution to the stat: I resurrected my oldest laptop last week – a Dell dating back some years kept only because its built-in RS232 port is occasionally – like once every year or so – useful for talking to the console of some device in the server room. It was "loaded" (for its time) with a whopping 2 GB of ram for its 32bit install of Windows 10 – version 1507.</p><p><br></p><p>Long story short, I fired it up to do a task that needed doing, then left the machine open, running on my desk. Took a while – and a couple of restarts, but darned if it didn't update successfully to 1709.</p>

  • MikeGalos

    26 April, 2018 - 2:45 pm

    <p>That is a spectacular lack of fragmentation. </p><p><br></p><p>Now that Windows 8.x and Windows 7 have aged out to "Extended Support" and any reasonably competent IT operation is far along in their migration path off them before they move to being totally unsupported this bodes well for developers only needing to support a single version of Windows.</p><p><br></p><p>As an FYI for those who don't track this stuff professionally, Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 becomes unsupported on January 14, 2020 and Windows 8.1 ends its lifecycle on January 10, 2023.</p>

    • skane2600

      26 April, 2018 - 3:19 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#266254"><em>In reply to MikeGalos:</em></a></blockquote><p>"any reasonably competent IT operation" is kind of begging the question, right? Having a supported OS is important, but it's not the only consideration. </p><p><br></p><p>For developers, the most relevant issue is OS market share so Windows 10 is fine as long as one stays away from things like UWP that aren't supported on earlier Windows versions. If a user wants to buy a vendor's product and run it on an unsupported version of Windows, the money is still green.</p>

      • MikeGalos

        07 May, 2018 - 12:19 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#266264"><em>In reply to skane2600:</em></a></blockquote><p>Yes, you are correct in saying that "<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">Having a supported OS is important, but it's not the only consideration". It's the MINIMUM consideration. You can and likely will have others on top of that but if you are running an unsupported OS then you are not competent at your job in IT operations. Period.</span></p>

    • CalWorthington

      26 April, 2018 - 8:04 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#266254"><em>In reply to MikeGalos:</em></a></blockquote><p>2 more years and 5 more years for 7 and 8.1 respectively, plenty of time for MS to pull their heads out on 10's mobile identity crisis and build a proper successor to 7. Telemetry opt out and better control over updates are minimum before the 50% of the market still on 7 and 8.1 will switch.</p><p><br></p><p>If MS doesn't de-crapware and de-spyware 10, most people will continue to run 7 and 8.1 long past end of extended support. Sorry, sparky.</p>

      • NT6.1

        26 April, 2018 - 10:55 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#266321"><em>In reply to CalWorthington:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Basically. I don't know who these fanboys think they're fooling. People stuck with Windows XP for years even with a proper successor (Windows 7). Windows 10 don't stand a chance. They seem to forget Windows 7 is a modern OS, unlike XP. XP (the relevant version) was 32 bit, limited to 4 GB of RAM while Windows 7 is 64 bit and limited to 192 GB of RAM. So Windows 7 can still last for a long time. And don't even bother with performance improvements Windows 10 (and 8.1) have over 7. People don't care about that.</p>

  • jwpear

    Premium Member
    26 April, 2018 - 2:59 pm

    <p>I wonder if the hesitation by many on Surface Laptop is the fact that the device is unrepairable. Most folks don't want to spend that kind of money on a device that cannot be repaired at all. And the Consumer Reports quality report certainly didn't help the Surface reputation. Folks sending kids off to college with a new laptop are probably looking at reviews on devices as expensive as it is.</p><p><br></p><p>It may have been targeted at students, but who in their right mind would give an unrepairable, super expensive laptop to a student? If I'm buying something for my student, I want to be able to replace the keyboard and screen. Crap gets spilled on keyboards. Screens get cracked. And call me crazy, but I might want to replace the battery in 3-4 years to get another year or two of portable life out of it. You know, because my kid is trying to finish up a degree and maybe wants to extend to a masters.</p><p><br></p><p>We got an i5 Surface Laptop when they were on sale this past December. It's my wife's primary machine. She uses it mostly around the house with some very occasional travel. I absolutely couldn't see it holding up with a student. The sale price allowed me to purchase the Complete Care extended warranty/protection. I wouldn't consider having a Surface Laptop without it given it is unrepairable.</p><p><br></p><p>The other thing I suspect is that many students today are just in love with Apple thanks to the iPhone. Everyone wants a MacBook for college unless they truly have a specific need for a PC. Based on the reaction of my kids and their friends, PC's are just uncool to many teens thinking about college.</p>

    • Daekar

      26 April, 2018 - 3:54 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#266256"><em>In reply to jwpear:</em></a></blockquote><p>So… based on the number of people I see running around with glued-together ultrabooks and super-slim Apple laptops, I would say that the average college student doesn't give a flying fig about how repairable their electronics are until they need to virtue signal about how environmentally-friendly they are. Same with phones. </p><p><br></p><p>Honestly, most people who aren't technology-savvy will take their machine to a shop, say something like, "It won't start when I push the button" and buy another when they're told it can't be fixed.</p>

  • red.radar

    Premium Member
    26 April, 2018 - 3:44 pm

    <p>I found it interesting that its not just Microsoft having troubles releasing software on time. </p><p><br></p><p>Ubuntu 18.04 has been delayed because of last minute issue…</p><p><br></p><p>https://fossbytes.com/ubuntu-18-04-not-released-yet/</p><p><br></p><p>Everyone is struggling with quality these days. </p>

    • matsan

      27 April, 2018 - 1:32 am

      <blockquote><a href="#266267"><em>In reply to red.radar:</em></a></blockquote><p>Yeah, Ubuntu jumped onto the Wayland / Gnome bandwagon with 17.10 and that was a mess. Neither Gnome or Wayland was ready for prime-time. Ubuntu has been good for both projects though since the user base must have skyrocketed. </p><p>18.04 goes back to xorg and will take a couple of steps back with HiDPI support.</p>

  • Chris_Kez

    Premium Member
    26 April, 2018 - 3:54 pm

    <p>What's the latest word Windows 7/8/8.1? </p>

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