Brace Yourselves! – The New Windows 10 Update (1909) is Out!

If one thing has been made abundantly clear since the launch of Windows 10, it’s that Microsoft has left a lot to be desired when it has come to the quality checking of the updates. Don’t get me wrong, I have the Windows 10 operating system running on my PC and (unlike many people) don’t have any problems with it per-say. That is, however, perhaps none of the major issues that have been associated with their prior updates have affected me. Well, at least not yet.

If you are, however, one of those who have had more than a few issues with Windows 10 updates, then you might want to brace yourself. Microsoft has formally released the 2nd (and final) major update to the operating system. Namely, version 1909.

Windows 10 Version 1909

Unlike many of the prior update, 1909 (thankfully) doesn’t tinker too much with the inner details of the operating system. Instead, it more looks to apply various user interface tweaks to make Windows 10 more accessible.

So, if you’re prepared for a little reading, here’s the update notes.

• This update will be published to WSUS. So that customers can deploy and manage Insider Preview builds alongside their standard ConfigMan/WSUS approach. See this blog post for details.
• We are offering pre-release support for 19H2 offered to Windows Insider Program for Business (WIP4Biz) customers who face blocking issues that prevent them from feature evaluation or device use. See this article for details.
• Windows containers require matched host and container version. This restricts customers and limits Windows containers from supporting mixed-version container pod scenarios. This update includes 5 fixes to address this and allow the host to run down-level containers on up-level. For process (Argon) isolation.
• A fix to allow OEMs to reduce the inking latency based on the hardware capabilities of their devices. Rather than being stuck with latency selected on typical hardware configuration by the OS.
• Key-rolling or Key-rotation feature enables secure rolling of Recovery passwords on MDM managed AAD devices. Upon on demand request from Microsoft Intune/MDM tools or upon every time recovery password is used to unlock the BitLocker protected drive. This feature will help prevent accidental recovery password disclosure as part of manual BitLocker drive unlock by users.

Fallen Asleep Yet?…

• A change to enable third-party digital assistants to voice activate above the Lock screen.
• You can now quickly create an event straight from the Calendar flyout on the Taskbar. Just select the date and time at the lower right corner of the Taskbar to open the Calendar flyout and pick your desired date and start typing in the text box. You’ll now see inline options to set a time and location.
• The navigation pane on the Start menu now expands when you hover over it with your mouse. To better inform where clicking goes.
• We have added friendly images to show what is meant by “banner” and “Action Center” when adjusting the notifications on apps in order to make these settings more approachable and understandable.
• Notifications settings under Settings > System > Notifications will now default to sorting notification senders by most recently shown notification, rather than sender name. This makes it easier to find and configure frequent and recent senders. We have also added a setting to turn off playing sound when notifications appear.
• We now show the options to configure and turn off notifications from an app/website right on the notification. Both as a banner and in Action Center.
• Added a “Manage notifications” button to the top of Action Center that launches the main “Notifications & actions” Settings page.

What Do We Think? – Will Microsoft get THIS one Right?

Unlike prior updates, as this one doesn’t really mess with the technical inner-workings of the operating system, we’d probably say that this one should be released with any problems. That being said, however, Microsoft has a pretty lousy track record with their updates. Perhaps worse in fixing them!

Perhaps the prudent thing is to go into your update options and just place them on a very temporary hold. Yes, this might seem benign, but appearances can be deceiving. If you don’t mind, however, expect a longer than expected shutdown in the very near future.

For more information on the update, you can check out the official Microsoft website via the link here!

What do you think? Have you ever had any problems with Windows Updates? Do you play to hold off on this one until you know it’s good? – Let us know in the comments!