Ready the preparations! Microsoft has rolled out a new Windows 10 servicing calendar that lays out when the different parts of the operating system will be refreshed, and how.
This has been revealed in a piece published by James Bell, a senior product marketing manager in the company’s Microsoft 365 deployment group, on the Tech Community website. And plenty of details are provided for those who are curious.
Too many, in fact, for the casual user.
But seeing as this is meant for system administrators and IT professionals, it actually makes sense.
The big takeaway is that there are two calendar options for organizations, and they can be chosen depending on the volume of endpoints that are being deployed. These vary depending on the business needs and the editions of Windows 10 that are used.
And these are good enough for the immediate future, as in till the 22H2 feature update.
First up, we have a calendar that shows an example schedule to apply one Windows 10 feature update to a commercial environment, aligned to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager and Microsoft 365 Apps release cycles.
This is for when you want your devices to receive one feature update annually, and is best for organizations that can’t handle a rapid deployment cadence for all their endpoints.
Second, we have enterprises that are familiar with deploying features updates on an annual cadence, or can shift to this rapid cycle with minor increase in effort have this second calendar they can follow. Ideal for businesses that value innovation more than others.
So, basically, we have two calendars, Annual and Rapid that detail the new servicing strategy for that Microsoft has in place for Windows 10 and Office, as part of the Microsoft 365 initiative.
The lengthy article also goes into planning and deployment tips, so there is a lot of valuable information if you manage a fleet of systems.
