When Microsoft launched its current personal computer operating system platform Windows 10 back in 2015, they started a new system of improving and updating the general OS performance and experience. Rather than wait until a new named version of Microsoft Windows to come a few years later, the company implemented a regular OS update regimen. This is in line with Microsoft’s labeling of Windows 10 as a “service” that gets improved and added features incrementally. The quality of update and service on W10 lately however, has been somewhat spotty. This 2018, there was a record number of glitches on it.
That is why, as The Verge reports, Microsoft has made statements on its Windows development blogs about implementing a new and greater transparency on how it tests new updates for W10. This is in line with their re-release of the recent October 2018 update on Tuesday, November 13, after the original configuration of the update was found to delete files on the Windows 10 computers it was installed to. Microsoft was forced to pull the update then in response. But this was only the latest in a line of update bugs suffered by the operating system service this year alone.
Microsoft Windows corporate VP Michael Fortin explains that the problem they encountered with updating Windows 10 what the sheer variance in computer components, drivers and software on all computers in the world today that run the OS over 700 million at last count. Therefore, a new W10 update that works without problems on one computer setup may cause problems in another. It does not help that Windows 10 has a complex system to begin with. Add to the fact that Microsoft currently relies on developers and Windows Insider program users to check for any foul-ups in the updating, a far cry from several years ago when they had dedicated software test engineers, now sadly gone.
To illustrate just how problematic the 2018 Windows 10 updates have been, here is a timeline: Microsoft delayed its April 2018 update after seeing it induce the Blue-Screen of Death on certain computers not compatibly configured for it. Said update also caused Google Chrome and the desktop to occasionally freeze. More recently, some PCs running Windows 10 Pro edition were deactivated due to human error when a Microsoft engineer created a licensing server change by mistake. And then there was the aforementioned October 2018 update.
Fortin is of the opinion that for the moment, the Windows team will shift focus from adding big new feature additions every six months and instead concentrate on improving features already in place to avoid issues between different PC setups. “We intend to leverage all the tools we have today and focus on new quality-focused innovation across product design, development, validation, and delivery,” he noted.
Image courtesy of Windows Central
0 comments:
Post a Comment