Yesterday the Windows Insider team at Microsoft pushed out Build 15058 of the Windows 10 Creators Update to Insiders that are in the testing programs Fast Ring.
This build, the 25th overall PC build of the Redstone 2 development process, showed some strong indicators that it might just be the expected final build in the Creators Update that would eventually become the bits that are rolled out to all Windows 10 users when the upgrade becomes available in the next few weeks.
When I looked at Build 15055 last Friday, all the indicators were there to confirm it would not be the last build testers saw for the Creators Update. It still had a time bomb in it that would cause the build to expire on the 15th of May and the desktop watermark was still present. On top of those two items, even the Windows Team said there would be another build because it would contain a fix for a significant Windows Store and update bug that was present in 15055.
Well Build 15058 arrived this week and did address that app update bug but two things were absent from this release that lend themselves to the possibility that 15058 could be that final build, what everyone used to call the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build.
The first thing missing in 15058 was a time bomb or system expiration.
You will also notice that the Windows Version, 1703 for March 2017, also remains in this build after it first appeared in Build 15055.
The other key item missing from Build 15058 is the desktop watermark that normally labels a Windows Insider testing release as a preview or evaluation version.
So these are two positive indicators that would lead many to believe that Build 15058 is in fact the likely final build of the Windows 10 Creators Update. As history has shown for past feature updates like the November and Anniversary Updates, Microsoft would now continue to collect telemetry on this build and then issue a Day 1 patch when it is released for General Availability to Windows 10 users. That Day 1 update can address any lingering bugs and performance issues that are discovered over these final days/weeks of testing.
However, as everyone slept overnight on the likelihood that Build 15058 was the final build, a wrench might have been thrown into the works early this morning by Windows Insider Chief Dona Sarkar.
She sent this tweet which stated that no new builds would be issued today but also indicated that the team was looking to push out another build later in the week.
No builds on Wed PST #WindowsInsiders. We're trying to release another later this week.
— Dona Sarkar (@donasarkar) March 15, 2017
There was no subsequent clarification if she meant another desktop or mobile build either.
So while we all continue to ponder if Build 15058 is actually the final build leading up to General Availability of the Creators Update, it seems we have a couple more days before we might know anything for sure.
Well - at least as sure as you can be since they do not officially announce when that final build is released anyway.
One thing that is likely pretty close to final in Build 15058 is the new Windows 10 Creators Update Out of Box Experience. Here is a new video to show you that process on a Virtual Machine running Build 15058 that I reset earlier today.
What is your opinion of Build 15058 at this point?
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