Microsoft promises to deliver two Office and two Windows 10 feature upgrades every year, with the first scheduled for March and the second every September. Microsoft is now setting a clear path that the company intends to follow. Previously, Microsoft officials had said that the company planned to bring two or three feature updates to Windows 10 at some point during the calendar year. However, Last year the company uncharacteristically ended up rolling out only one, the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. The System Center Configuration Manager updates will be coordinated with this new twice-annual update model, officials stated.
Another positive change announced today is Microsoft's is extended the support period for Windows 10 feature updates as well as the Office 365 ProPlus updates from 12 to 18 months. This will allow IT pros to choose to update once or twice a year, instead of rushing to beat the update support clock. Moreover, Microsoft is adding a lot of new Office 365 application compatibility, upgrade assessment tools and monitoring, to try to make Office 365 ProPlus upgrades much easier.
"Redstone 3" will be the next feature update to Windows 10 and will begin rolling out in September 2017 as confirmed by Microsoft officials. Also, early reports suggest that "Redstone 3" would be available this fall and "Redstone 4" should start rolling out in March 2018. The "Redstone 3" will be the biggest feature upgrade coming to Windows 10 in terms of new features, improvements, and a possible design overhaul of some of the corners of Windows 10.
"Redstone 3" will also be finalized in September too, hence the version number will be 1709, however, the public will only be able to test it in October. Fans are expecting things like a new Project NEON design language, a shell that's adaptable to different devices and form factors, the x86 app emulation on ARM devices, MyPeople hub, Continuum features for phones, and more.
