Microsoft's Windows 10 Insider build beta update reduces the operating system's download size by 65 percent. However, most users won't enjoy smaller updates until fall.
Microsoft Windows 10 Insider Build Shrinks Download Size
According to Supersite Windows, the last 10 days have been very busy for Microsoft, as the company gets even closer to the final release of the Windows Creators Update expected to be finalized in the next few weeks. Testers had access to five different builds of Windows. Among the versions released to Windows Insiders include 15047 and 15043 for Mobile and 15048, 15046, and 15042 for PCs.
According to Computerworld, Microsoft repeated last week its assertion that, later this year, future Windows 10 feature upgrades will reduce in size. The company also supported the claim with some data. The data showed that the largest reductions in download size will be experienced by those running Windows 10's preview, labeled "Insider."
For an Insider refresh compared to a full install update, Windows 10's new update delivery system reduces the download size by 65 percent. This is achieved by sending only what has changed in the operating system since the last update.
Microsoft's Unified Update Platform
Microsoft first promises smaller upgrades in November, when the company introduced the "Unified Update Platform" (UUP). This new update delivery technology was rolled out in December to participants in the Insider program.
Microsoft director of program management, Bill Karagounis, returned to the UUP topic on Thursday, Mar. 2, in a post to Microsoft company's blog. According to him, the UUP system brings the benefit of a reduction in the download size of build updates on PCs.
UUP sends only what has changed since the last upgrade or update, rather than deliver every file necessary to assemble the upgrade prior to installation. The resulting package uses files already found on the local system and builds new files containing the changed code just downloaded in order to generate the installation.
With UUP in place, the size of a Feb. 1 Insider update is 65 percent smaller than a Feb. 8 full update, dropping to a median of just 910 MB. However, Karagounis said that non-Insider users of Windows 10 won't see reductions that substantial. Under UUP's differential regime, feature upgrades should shrink by about 35 percent.
