Following the release of Windows 10 back in July 2015, it soon became clear that Microsoft completely changed its development cycle in favor of what the company calls “Windows as a service.” Indeed, instead of getting Service Packs or new Windows versions once in a while, the company is now releasing cumulative updates every month as well as major updates every six months or so.
It all started with the release of Windows 10 version 1511 (aka “Threshold 2”) in November 2015, which was followed by the Anniversary Update (version 1607, aka “Redstone 1”) in August 2016, which is still the current Windows 10 branch as of today. This year though, two major updates are in the pipeline: the Creators Update (“Redstone 2”) which is expected to be released in April, and “Redstone 3” which the company recently confirmed for later this year.
If the Redmond giant won’t release Redstone 3 builds to Windows Insiders before the release of the Creators Update in April, it seems that Microsoft has already started compiling the first RS3 builds internally: the Windows 10 build 15141 has just appeared on BuildFeed, a website that keep tracks of all Insider builds (via MSPoweruser). According to Buildfeed, this build comes from the rs_prerelease branch (different from the rs2_release branch, which is for Redstone 2 builds) and is the current build available on the Canary Ring, an internal ring for Microsoft developers that receives daily updates.
We don’t have much details about the next major update for Windows 10 as of today, though we know that Microsoft is currently working on three major features, at least:
- “My People”, a new feature that will bring your contacts to the front and center of your Windows 10 experience was expected to ship with the Creators Update this spring. However, Microsoft announced last month that it has been delayed to “the next major update to Windows.”
- Project Neon, a new streamlined design language for Windows 10 and UWP apps could also be one of the most important changes to appear in the Redstone 3 update.
- Lastly, Microsoft is reportedly working on a new universal shell known as “Composable Shell” which will scale accross PC, Mobile, Xbox One and HoloLens, bringing many UI and UX improvements along the way.
We expect to learn a lot more about the RedStone 3 update during the Build 2017 developer conference in May. In the meantime, the Windows Insider team still has some work to do on the Creators Update and we hope to get a new Windows 10 preview build really soon!
