Review: Windows 10 Creators Update is quite a small major update
Arriving April 11, it's not that creative, but Windows 10 keeps getting
better.
Peter Bright - 4/11/2017, 11:40 PM
Enlarge / The announcement of the Creators Update in October 2016.
Although it has been available to Insiders for a few weeks, today's the day
that the Windows 10 version 1703, the Creators Update, is hitting Windows
Update. The first automatic upgrades to the latest Windows 10 version will
start happening at about 10am PDT. Over the next few weeks, the upgrade will
be pushed to more and more Windows 10 systems. Here's our review (originally
published on 3/29/17) of the update, taking a look at the biggest changes
that the Creators Update contains.
The next big update to Windows 10 is nearly upon us: Windows 10 version
1703, known as the Creators Update, will be published to Windows Update next
Patch Tuesday, on April 11.
The final build is-probably-15063. That build is already available to
insiders and should soon become available for the Windows 10 Media Creation
tool, but we also know that there are going to be some patches materializing
some time between now and when that happens. There's a small chance those
patches will bump the build number; more likely, they will instead bump the
patch number, which is currently a pristine and perfect 0 on the desktop.
The mobile build has already been bumped to 15063.2 to handle an
installation problem when upgrading from version 1607.
An update (4/11/17)
It turns out that the operating system does contain a little more 3D support
than appears at first glance: if you enable "developer mode" (the same mode
that's required to enable the Linux subsystem and a few other bits and
pieces), the 3D shell and headset setup app are installed. So if you have
the hardware-development kits have just started to trickle out-you can
develop and test virtual reality software. This just reinforces the
developer positioning; it won't go mainstream until the next major Windows
10 update, due in about six months.
Version 1703 has been branded the "Creators Update" (without an
apostrophe). Frankly, this made more sense in the context of its grand
unveiling than it does now; when the Creators Update was revealed, Microsoft
also introduced its new Surface Studio desktop computer, and promised that a
range of affordable virtual reality headsets would be developed for Windows
10. With the Surface Studio being a machine unambiguously designed for
digital artists, and with virtual reality needing a wealth of new 3D
applications to truly shine, the "Creators Update" branding was an obvious
nod to these new hardware form factors.
In terms of what's actually been delivered, however, and 1703 just doesn't
seem all that, well, creative. Let's start with those headsets: they're not
on the market yet, and they're probably some months away. The Creators
Update introduces substantial programmatic support for them, and will be
enough for developers to start creating software for the Windows Holographic
APIs-but the operating system itself doesn't include any particularly
significant 3D features for the end-user. Those will probably start to
happen in the second major update, planned for later this year.
URL:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/windows-10-creators-u
pdate-quite-a-small-major-update-coming-april-11th/
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