Microsoft's Latest Testing Releases Confirms a Whole New Way of Doing Windows Development

Windows 10 Creators Update went live for everyone this week, but insiders on the Fast Ring are already on their second new testing build of the next feature update for PCs running Windows 10.

(Microsoft also released the first mobile build for Redstone 3, but that one comes with a couple of key caveats that mobile users need to read about right away.)

The speed with which the Windows 10 team is iterating development updates is a reminder of how Windows as a Service works. And it points out how busy it is for Microsoft.

How busy was it for the folks up in Redmond? Over the past five days they have accomplished the following things:

-- Ended support for Windows Vista after 10 years
-- Released cumulative updates and security patches for all shipping versions of Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, other operating systems, and software products on Patch Tuesday
-- Officially began the roll-out of the Windows 10 Creators Update via Windows Update
-- Continued monitoring roll out of Creators Update that began un-officially on the 5th of April

This is just what we know about publicly however, we also know they have already started their work on the next major feature update for Windows 10 that is expected later this year. Initial work on this update, codenamed Redstone 3, was made available to testers for the first time last week when the Windows team released their first Fast Ring build for PCs - 16170 - to Windows Insiders.

To wrap up this work week they have not only flighted the second Redstone 3 PC build in a week but they have also released the first official development build for Redstone 3 on mobile devices.

Does anyone else remember when a new operating system beta would come out and you'd spend several weeks getting to know it inside and out? 

Since people on the Fast Ring have been previewing and using the Creators Update for a while now, they've been able to spread out the work of learning how to best incorporate new features into their computing experience. Still this speedy pace of development continues with Redstone 3 and the pace of updates only underlines the reality of the Windows as a Service model: Updates are frequent, and nobody stays still for long.

Buckle up!

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