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The Windows 10 Creators Update Is Now Available (bleepingcomputer.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: Microsoft will officially release Windows 10 Creators Update on April 11, the same day it will retire Windows Vista, but users unwilling to wait that long can install it starting today, April 5, using the Windows 10 Update Assistant. The tool installs Build 15063 of the Windows 10 Insiders Build program, which is set to become the official Windows 10 Creators Update next week. The Windows 10 Update Assistant, which Microsoft first launched to help users update to Windows 10, has been recently used to upgrade users to the most recent version of Windows 10. The tool is available for download via the Microsoft site, albeit some users reported still getting an older version for download, which doesn't install the Creators Update. The Update Assistant is extremely easy to use and only requires users to click a few buttons.

57 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. I'll get right on that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    right after I beat myself in the head with a ball peen hammer

  2. Funny thing... by NormanHaga2580 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I installed 15063 Enterprise four days ago! Got it from Microsoft. It took a while to figure out how to disable and remove Cortana; you have to boot safe mode with no services and rename the directory, but it was done! I find nothing compelling about Windows 10 Creator, except how difficult MS made it to remove all the spyware and telemetry. Not at all like removing the junk from Windows 10 Anniversary, but still doable. On the other hand, with nothing but fluff, it might be said that if you are not bound to Microsoft products like Visual Studio, or the Office suite, then Windows 10 Creators Edition is a compelling reason to migrate to your flavor of Linux or BSD. Fortunately I run everything in a virtual machine.

    1. Re:Funny thing... by chipschap · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Given that in the consumer editions you can't refuse updates, I'm just waiting for them to push out the Windows 10 Subscription Edition. But I'm sure you'll get a 90 day grace period before everything shuts down, and I'm also sure they'll price it (initially) at an amount that you'll be sort of willing to pony up but will still make them even richer. If they ask you for $3 a month, will you grumble but pay up? Of course you will. And when it goes up to $5, will you say, it's only another two bucks?

      Of course, I made this all up. But just watch.

    2. Re: Funny thing... by chipschap · · Score: 1

      Cheaper than Linux?

    3. Re: Funny thing... by Highdude702 · · Score: 2

      LOL i thought the same thing. Because when that happens, Yes i said when, I will no longer play games that bind me to windows, and i will never again use a microsoft product. The way i have viewed it for the last year is microsoft has no more than 5 years left if they keep going the way they are. it will just push more developers and people that care off the platform which will eventually change the industry. so being a year into windows 10, i estimate 4 years left. more and more of the nerds that i know are putting their family members onto linux desktops for sake of not having to fix peoples computers every week for free. i doubt it will be much longer.

    4. Re:Funny thing... by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      Oh, I could see that being used as another subscription for Office 365 Enterprise users.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    5. Re: Funny thing... by NormanHaga2580 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Linux may be free as an OS, but it is not really free to run in an enterprise. Like it or not, there are many programs that are used in an enterprise that are Windows-centric. Some programs, like Adobe run on MacOS, but not that well, some will ruin in a VM, some will run in Wine, but in every case there is the time required to learn the *nix OS and to set the programs up, and you still pay fees for running those programs. If all you are doing is a little browsing, a little document editing, and a little development with Eclipse (or the like), Then Linux may be free. Move outside of that, and Linux is no longer free. There is a reason I use Virtual machines and multiple operating systems.

    6. Re: Funny thing... by piojo · · Score: 1

      I'm fairly confident my Linux laptop doesn't violate my privacy, except by having a fairly unique browser fingerprint.

      --
      A cat can't teach a dog to bark.
    7. Re: Funny thing... by boondaburrah · · Score: 1

      Mostly due to the software procurement/licensing/provisioning/installation workflow being so convoluted at most enterprises (where users don't have admin, so they can't install anything), I've noticed more enterprise software being written for the browser. If this trend continues we might not need Windows for the enterprise desktop much longer (except for that dang excel).

      Also wait, Adobe products run better on Windows? Since when? (I mean, they don't run particularly well anywhere, but this the first I've heard of windows compatibility not just causing problems for everybody)

    8. Re: Funny thing... by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      but in every case there is the time required to learn the *nix OS and to set the programs up

      So are you saying you dont have to learn anything to use any programs on windows? because thats nonsense and you know it. You have to learn something nomatter what you do. and once you do learn *nix OS you will wonder to yourself why you ever wasted brain power with anything else. And as someone else says below there alternative programs to everything and most are better than their windows counterpart. Sure you might have to learn how to use them. but you have to learn how to use anything you need for business.

  3. So? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Windows 10 - you cannot even give that shit away for free. -fuck MS.

    1. Re:So? by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      They do, and it's "free" when you purchase a computer from an OEM.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
  4. if only we could remove shell experience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    if c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository\StateRepository-Machine.srd is still there and can be edited with sqlite cortana should be removable with appx as long as you set IsInbox to 0.

  5. Does it perform better in gaming? by MrCodswallop · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does it perform better in gaming? That's the only reason why I own a Windows 10 PC.

    1. Re:Does it perform better in gaming? by ezelkow1 · · Score: 1

      Well it does include the new 'game mode', but if your running windows just for gaming you probably have already tweaked your system as much as possible and it wont do much. Its mostly there for the people that have 10 browser toolbars installed all sucking down resources and then wonder why games run like shit, it just changes priorities for the processes you specify as games

    2. Re:Does it perform better in gaming? by DigiShaman · · Score: 2

      Can't recall where, but supposedly the 'game mode' reallocates running non-gaming processes (Windows services, AV, etc) to a single thread/core via processor affinity. Essentially, the same thing both the XBox and PS does. The remaining free cores are available to low latency execution of the game to push a few more FPS out of the game. Now in reality, exactly how much performance?? Probably hair splitting from 1% to 2% at best would be my guess.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    3. Re:Does it perform better in gaming? by ckatko · · Score: 2

      It's pretty pathetic that Windows didn't support that back in... what... Windows Vista? You know, when multiple-core solutions starting becoming common...

      But then again, this is Microsoft. Where they add a feature Linux has had for literally decades, like "virtual desktops" or "resizable console windows" and call it bleeding-edge technology.

      It's 2017, and WE STILL DON'T HAVE A PACKAGE MANAGER. Oh, they added one... but it only works through the Windows Store so they can charge people for it. Embrace, Extended, Extinguish, indeed.

    4. Re:Does it perform better in gaming? by NormanHaga2580 · · Score: 1

      It depends on the game and the benchmark. In real life tests shown on various video forums I have seen anything from slower than Windows 8.1 to 1 or two percent faster.

    5. Re:Does it perform better in gaming? by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      Processor affinity has been around since the days of Windows NT back when you had dual Pentium Pro CPUs running on a single board. No, what "game mode" ostensibly does is make the kernel aware to not just load-balance running processes across all cores, rather, to preemptively clear out all other cores to make available exclusively for the game. When finished with "game mode", all running processes are load-balanced back across all cores again.

      It's not that could couldn't do this with any modern operating system, rather, just that no one else does because what serious PC gamers play them on Linux and OSX?? It's a simple feature to implement really.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    6. Re:Does it perform better in gaming? by ElizabethGreene · · Score: 4, Informative

      My understanding is that it has a gaming mode that throttles all of the background services to give maximum performance to the foreground app. It also has Beam streaming built in, if you like to broadcast your play.

      http://news.xbox.com/2017/01/1...

      Full disclosure, I work for Microsoft. This isn't paid shilling though, this is me sitting on my couch reading slashdot when I should be getting ready for bed.

    7. Re:Does it perform better in gaming? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No, but it will improve your experience by spying even more. It will also have few more advertisements on start menu and explorer, perhaps even their honest suggestions appear as popups over your fullscreen game now too?

    8. Re:Does it perform better in gaming? by MemeRot · · Score: 1

      Chocolatey for apps, nuget for libraries.

    9. Re:Does it perform better in gaming? by CastrTroy · · Score: 1

      I guess it depends on what kind of junk you have running in the background. Some people have quite a bit of junk running in the background. It it means that the machine doesn't start lagging right at a crucial moment in the game, then it's probably worth enabling it. I've always thought it was weird that they didn't have a more dedicated gaming mode. Completely shut down all unnecessary background services. This would have been much more useful back in the day of single core processors and spinning hard drives, because a single rogue background process could easily bring your machine to a crawl.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    10. Re:Does it perform better in gaming? by tepples · · Score: 1

      You could switch to the combination of a GNU/Linux PC and a PlayStation 4. Or a GNU/Linux PC and a Switch for that matter.

  6. Re:The Update Assistant is extremely easy to use . by rvw14 · · Score: 1

    Truly this is news for nerds.

  7. Re:As someone that works at Microsoft... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Saw a changelog a week or so ago and as near as I can tell it's called that because they added some 3D shit to Paint.

  8. Re:The Update Assistant is extremely easy to use . by Darinbob · · Score: 2

    I think this is the big divide between Microsoft and Slashdot. Microsoft thinks that "only requires users to click a few buttons" is a positive thing. Slashdot thinks "please give me more control since this is my machine".

    With only a "few buttons" this means it will use the defaults more often, which generally in Microsoft's case is a bad idea. Remember that this is the company that allowed executing attachments arriving in email as the default action, and the company that thought upgrading to Windows 10 without asking first was a good default. Windows has been a long tortured history of removing user choice; each release making it harder to customize.

  9. Windows 10 Destroyer's Update by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    So when are they releasing the Destroyer's update, the update for the rest of us?

    1. Re:Windows 10 Destroyer's Update by DigiShaman · · Score: 2

      It's called Linux, and mentioning that "update" to Microsoft will make them a sad panda.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    2. Re:Windows 10 Destroyer's Update by fizzer06 · · Score: 1

      the Destroyer's update

      Codenamed "Shiva"?

    3. Re: Windows 10 Destroyer's Update by econnor · · Score: 1

      Isn't Kali the destroyer?

    4. Re:Windows 10 Destroyer's Update by Merk42 · · Score: 1

      Makes sense, install that update and none of your Windows programs will work anymore. You'll probably lose all of your data too.

  10. Re:Wait for Appdows 10 Cloud! by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

    This shit has me dying. at first I thought it was stupid as hell. But theyre getting more creative with it now and im kindof stoned but every time i see it i find the humor in it as a nerd should.

  11. Windows 10 Creator edition in ISO and USB form by DigiShaman · · Score: 2

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-g...

    The files show modified on March 18, 2017 with version numbers 10.0.15063.0. So yeah, looks to be the real deal.

    --
    Life is not for the lazy.
    1. Re:Windows 10 Creator edition in ISO and USB form by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      Update: Yes, I was able to update both my laptop and desktop from it. Insert the USB drive, and run the executable to start the upgrade process. Alternatively, you could perform a bare metal clean install as the USB drive is bootable. Process took about 45+minutes given both machines have SSD storage.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
  12. Re:Funny thing... Enterprise subscription... by NormanHaga2580 · · Score: 1

    Funny thing about that Enterprise subscription, it has been available to the everyday plain-vanilla user for about a year. The everyday user can subscribe to Windows Enterprise from the Microsoft Partners. The requirements and costs vary per Partner, but I have seen Enterprise subscriptions for as little as $10/month.

  13. When will it hit WSUS? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    When will it hit WSUS?

    1. Re:When will it hit WSUS? by ImprovOmega · · Score: 1

      I would imagine next Tuesday, like all the other Windows patches for the last 15 years - second Tuesday of the month.

  14. Re:As someone that works at Microsoft... by ElizabethGreene · · Score: 1

    The Creators Update is the marketing name for Windows 10 1703, build KB4016251 15063.13 aka "RS2"

    If I were to guess, I'd think the inspiration for the name is the new content creators features including a 3d modeling app and built-in game streaming with Beam.

    Full disclosure: I work for Microsoft, but this comment isn't paid shilling.

  15. Slightly interesting by scumdamn · · Score: 1

    The only thing in this update that I'm at all interested in is the Windows Subsystem for Linux. I'm kind of stuck with Windows on my work laptop and it's not terribly easy to do web development in any CMS that uses a LAMP stack. If the WSL works well enough it could replicate the Linux experience and make it less of a hassle. It also has Ubuntu 16.0.4 so that's a decent upgrade. I'm going to try it out on my one Win10 desktop at home to see if it'll run all the tools I need.
    (But I'll still probably end up using my Linux desktop at home because it just works.)

    1. Re:Slightly interesting by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      You should already the Windows Subsystem for Linux that if you're running Anniversary Edition (the previous version.) I use it every day - there are some minor issues with how it interprets symbolic links, but otherwise it seems pretty good. Shame there's no X11 on it though.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    2. Re:Slightly interesting by neilo_1701D · · Score: 1

      Use XMing as an X server. It works ok - well enough for me to use GAMBAS on Windows 10.

    3. Re:Slightly interesting by scumdamn · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I didn't get into it much but the Anniversary Edition's WSL wasn't quite good enough. Couldn't run Windows commands from within WSL, couldn't access ifconfig or run a few different node programs, stuff like that. I've upgraded the WSL distro and I'm going to see if it works better.

    4. Re:Slightly interesting by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      Let us know! I generally really like WSL, and consider it an improvement on Cygwin, but I do miss the ability to type things like "cmd /c start ." which in Cygwin gets Explorer to view the current directory, and in WSL... uh, well, doesn't ;-)

      I also hope symlinks work properly. If you ln -s /mnt/c/Users/userid/ ~/windows_user and cd to ~/windows_user it sort of works, but subsequent relative 'cds' don't - ie 'cd Documents' appears to work, but an ls shows you are still in C:\Users\userid

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  16. Re:Judging by the name... by Shimbo · · Score: 1

    Is this microsoft's personalized OS for God?

    It's the one that God wants you to use, as Numbher Six might say.

  17. Re:You sir, are a fool by NormanHaga2580 · · Score: 1

    You sir, are a fool. It is said that a wise man learns from his mistakes. That is a fool. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. What did I break? Nothing. Not even search because I use Classic Shell for a navigable menu rather than the jive that MS give us now. What did I use to actually do the job? A Wim tweak. What else did I do? Quite a bit: removed edge, feedback, contact support, telemetry, connect, all of the xbox stuff, all of the installed apps excluding store and calculator. Error messages in the logs? None. So please, save the Microsoft line. Many of us do not buy that line and want a hardened system - including against Microsoft and whoever they choose to share your data with without your permission, and in the case of government, without your knowledge. BTW: Most of the stuff in W10 is simply a wrapper from W7. I have unwrapped enough of those shells to make that claim. More importantly, you missed that I mentioned a virtual machine. Mistakes are easily corrected. Learn from the mistakes of others and be a wise man!

  18. Re:The Update Assistant is extremely easy to use . by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Indeed.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  19. Re:I don't know... by ausekilis · · Score: 1

    If the universe is running on Windows, that would explain a hell of a lot. Trump would be like a blue screen for Earth.

    Orange Screen, actually.

  20. Re: You sir, are a fool by NormanHaga2580 · · Score: 1

    Pray tell, what make you think I do not run Linux? Kali to be exact, I have run Debian proper, CentOS, and Slackware in the past. While each OS has its strengths and weaknesses, Windows has the applications that are most frequently run everyday. I am not a fanboi of any OS; I use each for its strengths.

  21. It lets users choose not to be the product by tepples · · Score: 1

    Microsoft is giving people a choice of how to pay for continued maintenance of Windows: either through payment or through analytics that Microsoft can use to boost relevance of ads presented to the user. Thus a user can choose to be a customer or to be the product. Several other service providers don't even give users this choice.

    And $10/month isn't that much more than, say, Apple charges for the Apple Developer Program.

  22. What copyright-related limits on Beam? by tepples · · Score: 1

    It also has Beam streaming built in, if you like to broadcast your play.

    What limits has Microsoft placed on Beam to appease Hollywood studios who would complain that the user can stream, say, a movie playing in a browser? And can game publishers trigger these limits if they don't want their copyrighted games performed publicly without a license? Capcom, for one, has been known to require royalties for streaming Street Fighter matches (source).

    1. Re:What copyright-related limits on Beam? by ElizabethGreene · · Score: 1

      My apologies, I don't know. That's not a question I've run into over in the enterprise space.

      As a data point, on Win10 1607, I'm able to use the xbox game recorder to pull clips out of VLC and DRM protected streams (Netflix in Firefox, haven't tried it in IE or Edge). (I grok screen recording != screen streaming.)

  23. Data loss has become acceptable lately by tepples · · Score: 1

    install that update and none of your Windows programs will work anymore

    sudo apt install wine and most still work. I use Xubuntu 16.04, and the Windows applications on which I depend (Modplug Tracker, FamiTracker, FCEUX debugging version, and NO$SNS) still work.

    You'll probably lose all of your data too.

    In the era of affordable USB hard drives and "cloud" backup, both Microsoft and its competition have begun to consider loss of data on a single device as acceptable collateral damage. Case in point from Microsoft's competition: When you switch a Chromebook from normal mode to developer mode or vice versa, the firmware performs a factory reset, deleting all user data stored on the device. And it's incredibly easy for someone else who turns on a developer mode Chromebook to begin a factory reset by pressing two keys without understanding: press Space to reenable OS verification, press Enter to confirm.

  24. No sequential numbering of service packs by tepples · · Score: 1

    Those are macOS 10.12, Android 7, and Debian 8 respectively. In addition, both Android and Ubuntu version codenames progress through the Latin alphabet regularly.

    The complaint as I understand it is that Microsoft is no longer assigning traditional minor version numbers for Windows, instead relying on less scrutable build numbers. Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 got "Service Pack x", which users could compare, and Windows 8 had "8.1", which users understood as the first service pack. Windows 10 build numbers increase monotonically, but because they're not sequential, it's hard to tell whether someone has skipped an update.

    1. Re:No sequential numbering of service packs by ElizabethGreene · · Score: 1

      > Windows 10 build numbers increase monotonically, but because they're not sequential, it's hard to tell whether someone has skipped an update.

      All of Windows 10's updates are cumulative, so you don't skip an update. I.e. if you start with the Win10 1607 media released in July of 2016 and install March's update then the box is up-to-date.

      MS is also publishing a running changelog with the build numbers and update info at
      https://support.microsoft.com/...

      Full disclosure: I work for Microsoft, but this is not paid shilling.

  25. Re: What planet are you on? by TheGrimmReaper · · Score: 1

    You could use just MS Office on Mac or Linux... or just use Google Docs.

  26. Time capsule. by saintlupus · · Score: 1

    It's amazing. I haven't been to this website in YEARS. I saw a link to this story on Twitter, clicked on it... and I'm right in the middle of a "Why would you use Windows when you can use Linux" argument from 2002. Did I go through a wormhole or has nothing changed here in a decade and a half?