The Windows 10 April Update (1803): The Littlest Big Update
by Brett Howse on May 25, 2018 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Software
- Operating Systems
- Windows
- Microsoft
- Windows 10
We’re about three years into Windows 10, and we’ve seen a lot of changes to the OS, as well as the servicing model, in those three years. The move to no longer offering major OS updates every couple of years with a new name, and requirement for purchase, is very welcome, and has likely been the biggest success of the Windows 10 launch. Microsoft has also refined the servicing model to a more consistent pattern of two updates per year, and while that can either be a pro or a con depending on where you stand, they’ve met that over the last couple of updates. With the Windows 10 April Update, which is version 1803, we’ve got arguably the smallest update yet in terms of new features, but that’s not really a bad thing. Three years in, the OS is mature enough that it’s good to see the company dialing back on the major interface changes, and hopefully focusing more on consistency, and reliability.
There’s still a lot of new features for the April Update, but only a handful of what you’d consider major feature additions to Windows. There’s Timeline, Nearby Share, Focus Assist, and Progressive Web App support being the most noticeable user-facing features, but there’s also a lot of little changes under the hood as well, such as more use of their Fluent design language across the OS, a continued movement of replacing the Control Panel with the new Settings app, and improvements to visibility of privacy information, among others.
| Windows 10 Version History | |||||
| Version | Version Number | Release Date | |||
| Windows 10 Original Release | 1507 | July 29, 2015 | |||
| November Update | 1511 | November 10, 2015 | |||
| Anniversary Update | 1607 | August 2, 2016 | |||
| Creators Update | 1703 | April 5, 2017 | |||
| Fall Creators Update | 1709 | October 17, 2017 | |||
| April Update | 1803 | April 30, 2018 | |||
It’s also worth discussing the state of Windows right now in the grand scheme of Microsoft. Terry Myerson, who has been the EVP of Windows and Devices for Microsoft for almost five years, and who has been the driving force behind the new Windows 10 model of constant servicing rather than large updates every couple of years, announced his departure from Microsoft in March of this year. Microsoft is in the middle of a transition from their legacy applications such as Windows and Office, to a cloud computing company based on services, and Windows is no longer going to be the driving factor there. As such, the former crown jewels of the company are being pushed to the outskirts. It’ll still be an important platform for Microsoft, but growth for the company is going to come from other places.
What this will mean for Windows 10 is likely going to be a reduction in resources allocated to its development, although that’s speculation at this time. It would not be surprising to see future updates scaled back in terms of frequency though. Considering the maturity of Windows 10 now, and the major foothold it has in the enterprise, a yearly update would likely make more sense anyway, so this might not be a bad thing.
We’ve also seen the latest April Update falling into some issues with delivery, thanks to some critical bugs found right before it was set to ship. This delayed the shipment of the new update until the very last day in April, which was only symbolically important because someone decided to call it the April Update. In reality, it wasn’t being pushed to anyone in April, but was available for people to manually get it. But as of this writing, the official rollout seems to be very slow to start, so perhaps there’s other issues holding up deployment, much like the incompatibility with the Intel 600p. That’s unfortunate, since the Fall Creators Update was pretty quick to rollout, but even with a massive beta test network in the Windows Insider Program, it proves again how difficult it is to do Windows as a Service on a regular schedule.
But, once it does start rolling out through Windows Update, there will be some new things to check out, so let’s take a look at some of them.
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haplo602 - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
Update itself went fine, however Tablet Mode stopped working after update. I have a convertible laptop (HP Envy x360). When I flip he device into tablet mode, screen rotation kicks in, keyboard and touchpad get disabled but no prompt to switch to tablet mode, when I set the option to not ask and switch, still nothing. I can only switch manually via action center.ಬುಲ್ವಿಂಕಲ್ ಜೆ ಮೂಸ್ - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
That's hilariousSometimes I think they should replace "Saturday Night Live" with "Comedy Hour Updates"
It would be very entertaining to see all the most obnoxious, dastardly, destructive and moronic "updates" Microsoft has to offer on a weekly basis
Typo - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
only 1/3 of the computers in my house has gotten the update. Neither of my laptops seem to see it yet.ChristopherFortineux - Friday, June 8, 2018 - link
Laptops usually get pushed back in the update scheme.pjcamp - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
I'd give all that up for the ability to put a live tile on the desktop. I use a third party app to keep Windows 7 gadgets running because a calendar reminder isn't very useful if I have to remind myself to open the start menu to see it.lmcd - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
This is a good look at the update for the consumer "Home" SKU, which many users are using. However, for me personally this is single-handedly the best update Windows 10 has had. This update adds two excellent features for developers.For Android Developers, this release launches the Windows Hypervisor platform, which allows for the Xamarin version of the Android Virtual Device Manager to run with Hyper-V enabled (or, more specifically, with Docker for Windows enabled).
Yes, the Xamarin AVD version is still in Beta. No, your rebuttals cannot be heard over the sound of my rejoicing.
For C++ Windows developers, this release adds C++/WinRT, which removes a lot of the constraints around consuming UWP APIs from C++ code, and adds support for UWP CLI tools.
While I haven't explored exactly what the latter does yet, I believe (along with the current UWP API surface area improvements) that the ChakraCore-derived version of Node + NPM could be completely packaged as UWP apps for system-wide use.
draknon - Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - link
Microsoft was nice enough to return the edge shortcut to my desktop. I guess they thought I may have accidently deleted it (it wasn't on accident). Also, they changed the audio options when you right click on the speaker icon in the task bar. I used to be able to go directly to the playback/recording devices from here. But now, the only option is to choose sounds and then click over to the playback tab afterwards. It's another step which gets annoying.elopescardozo - Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - link
I was contacted by a friend that after the upgrade to 1803, his Excel would crash at the first attempt to enter something in a cell. Turns out that this is a known feature : 1803 kills several older Excel versions. Apparently. Microsoft is not planning to repair this. It is either incredibly sloppy programming or a malicious way to force people to upgrade their Microsoft Office. Is this how they recuperate the "free" OS updates?Personally, I hate the way to "simplify" Windows by making active controls unrecognizable: links in the settings menue are generally gray without any indication that they are clickable. Someone should explain that a workstation is not a telephone or a tablet end never will be.
ChristopherFortineux - Friday, June 8, 2018 - link
Product is End of Life. But the issue is 'Security Update for Microsoft Excel 2002 (KB2541003)'t.s - Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - link
One feature that android (on and off) and linux have that windows and mac/ios doesn't have: dark theme/mode. It would be nice too, if ms edge have inverse color that chrome has (extensions).