Windows 10 October 2018 Update Now Available For All To Download After Rocky Launch
We are now in the middle of December and fast approaching a brand new year, and at long last the October 2018 Update for Windows 10 is finally widely available to the public. There is a catch, however. Only "advanced users" who have not already updated are likely to see the update, as it must be manually retrieved.
"Windows 10, version 1809, is now fully available for advanced users who manually select 'Check for updates' via Windows Update," Microsoft said.
That means it is still not being doled out on an automatic basis, but at least it's available for anyone who wants to take the initiative. It's not clear when Microsoft will flip the switch for the public at large by pushing out version 1809 automatically.
This has been the most problematic upgrade to Windows 10 that I can recall. Every upgrade to Windows 10 has its own set of issues, but in this case, Microsoft felt compelled to pause the October 2018 Update's roll out because of a file deletion bug. Unfortunately, that was only only one of several issues.
There was also a zip file bug that was minor in comparison (but could still result in lost files), an issue with mapped drives showing up properly, AMD and Intel driver bugs, and various other annoyances. Some of the bugs were actually spotted during the testing phase by members of the Windows Insider program, but for whatever reason they made it into the initial October 2018 Update that was doled out to the public.
"Even a multi-element detection process will miss issues in an ecosystem as large, diverse and complex as Windows," Michael Fortin, Microsoft Corporate VP for Windows, wrote in a blog post last month. "While we will always work diligently to eliminate issues before rollout, there is always a chance an issue may occur. When this happens, we strive to minimize the impact and respond quickly and transparently to inform and protect our customers."
At long last, it seems the latest build of Windows is finally ready for prime time (knock on wood).
