A week after releasing Windows 10 to the public, Microsoft is already rolling out the first major update. And when I say major update, I mean you won’t notice any new features, but the update is a 325MB download with a ton of performance tweaks and bug fixes.

sr1

The update is cumulative, which means that you may already have received some of the included fixes through Windows Update. If that’s the case, the Windows Update process will only download and install updates that aren’t already on your computer.

Paul Thurrott reports that Microsoft has been referring to this update internally as Windows 10 SR1 (Service Release 1).

More importantly, the update provides some key evidence that Microsoft is taking its “Windows as a Service” strategy seriously. The company released Windows 10 to manufacturers shortly before the official launch date for the operating system and promised to roll out bug fixes, new features, security updates, and enhancements as they become available.

Say goodbye to the occasional “service pack” updates of yesteryear and hello to a continually updated operating system that gets features and improvements as they become available.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,545 other subscribers

42 replies on “Windows 10 gets its first big update (Windows really is a service)”

  1. I knew it, Win10 is spyware, just like iOs and android. I’m sticking to windows 7 and xp.

  2. can I download the service pack and incorporate it into my new retail Windows 10 DVD or retail windows 10 usb???

  3. Some people are complaining about the “day 1” aspect of this update. The thing you have to remember is that the code base for the Windows 10 release was locked down weeks ago, with only critical fixes being allowed in to reduce the chance of regressions (a major problem for big software project of this scale). MS had to allow time to distribute the final code to the OEMs in time for them to do some final testing, configuration, and installation.

    If there was just one distribution outlet for Win 10, many of the fixes in the first service update could have been included in the main release — they were probably ready weeks ago.

  4. I think people will begin to appreciate how this is different from past practice once a few large scale feature updates roll out, but it sounds like the Jan 2016 timeframe will be the first time we see those. Don’t forget that Win XP SP2 was a big enough change that it was originally meant to be a new separately-priced version of Windows. Ballmer had to do a lot of fighting and horse trading to get it released as a free update back then. People also seem to forget how many applications it broke because of fundamental changes in the security model.

  5. “service” ???? i would rather call this an ongoing and never finished workplace. no longer “product” but an ongoing experiment.

    1. Hasn’t that always been the case with Windows?

      At least it gets done faster now and we can actually see some improvements without needing to pay for the next incremental update. It’s more like what Apple has been doing with OSX but with no set update schedule instead of a annual system…

      1. The main difference was that software could be tested against Service Pack levels, Service Packs could be deferred, and Service Packs didn’t get installed by everyone within a very short interval of time. Now a breaking change will mean a global emergency for impacted ISVs.

        1. Worse case scenario, perhaps, but since nothing has gone wrong and people are reporting it actually works and note improvement then this one at least has been a apparent success…

          You’re also ignoring the best case scenario, which is everyone gets updated quickly and a zero day vulnerability gets patched so quickly that virtually no damage can be done by any malware… Waiting has its downside, just like rushing can…

          Only time will tell if you really have a point or whether MS put enough safeguards in place to prevent any serious problems. While we’ll also see if ultimately the benefits outweigh the potential pitfalls…

          1. Now you are talking about bug fixes again. While those have some history of woes of their own I am talking about “feature” updates that change the nature of different things, much as service packs and new releases used to.
            I guess we aren’t all paid to pass out rose colored glasses and thus twist and turn our arguments in order to always cast anything Microsoft does in the best light possible.

          2. Pointing out that there’s more up side than down side isn’t trying to show MS in the best light possible, it’s clarifying that in balance the benefits are clear and the argument that there is no benefits is clearly false!

            Anyway, the features will likely be pushed through beta testers long before they get officially released… MS is still maintaining the Insider program, etc.

            So chances of them being bad are extremely small… While getting new features is one of the reasons we even bother getting upgrades… So there’s not really a reason to knock this on that score as unlike a normal upgrade you had to purchase, you not only don’t need to pay for these new features but if they turn out unpopular then MS can remove, or replace, them without needing to sell us a whole new OS each time…

            So, aside from being cautiously pessimistic there’s more reasons to be optimistic… and thus a doom and gloom outlook is at best premature and at worst going out of your way to find the downside…

            Besides, they’re not going to be bombarding us with new features constantly. Most of the ones planned are still months away and the first few at least are features most would agree are good… Like being able to move apps to external drives, DVR functionality if you have a XBox One, etc…

            So nothing controversial or anything to be alarmed about, for the rest of this year…

            Besides, Windows has always included features you may or may not use… Having it doesn’t mean you have to use it!

  6. I was skeptical of the “tons of performance tweaks” but it’s made a huge difference. My boot times are now faster than Win 8.1 when they used to be much slower than 8.1.

  7. I have to agree that not much is different here. Windows was updated much the same in the past. “Windows as a service” is indeed a departure from the past. But this update is surely not a manifestation of that change.

  8. the problem with Windows updates is they do not do it like Linux does.
    They release patch and update after patch and update…it’s like putting a bandaid on top of another bandaid…eventually you have a huge pile of bandaids..
    Linux, they release a patch that fixes the bugs and deletes the old update or patch, so instead of a pile of bandaids you have a slightly bigger one each time…less bloat and more sense

    1. No, cumulative updates means each one essentially replaces the one that came previously, adding new changes along the way. Not all the updates are just adding onto one another anymore…

      They also changed the recovery system to work this way, so now when you reset you still keep all your updates and only the non-Windows stuff gets deleted, with the registry reset, which is one of the reasons Windows 10 can have 45% less space requirements than Windows 8 and that means up to 6.6 GB more free space and a even better compression efficiency than WIMBoot allowed.

      Linux still has some advantages but the difference isn’t so bad now… While, it’s not all one sided as one of the downsides of the Linux system is legacy support can be dropped if deemed obsolete and that can vary per distro project as well as on the Kernel side… Not usually a issue but Linux generally doesn’t rely on Legacy support like Windows users do, who still may be running programs over a decade old in some cases…

      But, that’s one of the reasons they keep pushing the WinRT apps because Universal apps has the potential to finally push the apps past the need for legacy support and let Windows finally start catching up with newer features and not be so bogged down by decades of legacy support…

      1. WinRT has an abysmal adoption rate and little about Windows 10 is likely to change that. Expect a future feature update to delete the WinRT subsystem and “tile windows” altogether.

        Things are so bad it is still a major event when anyone but Microsoft writes a WinRT app that does more than play rude sound effects.

        1. Correction, WinRT had a abysmal adoption rate, back when it was a locked down mess.

          Now, it allows porting options for Android, iOS, and even desktop developers. The Universal Apps aren’t locked to just tablet usage anymore. Elements like .NET are now Open Source. Universal Apps have gotten a kick off with Universal Office Apps providing more functionality than the previous mobile only apps. Continuum provides a feature that others have tried but seems to have the most chance to tap the untapped market of users who do want to do more with their mobile devices than just consuming media. They can actually leverage their other markets with features that play off each other now…

          While, let’s not exaggerate, there have been quite a few WinRT apps… over 150,000 and very few were made by MS itself. There was just a lack of really good apps and popular name apps. Also, the WP apps had still been locked to mainly Silverlight based phone apps up to WP8 and didn’t make the full move to WinRT until WP8.1 and the store didn’t allow you to buy once and use on any device before but it does now as another change…

          And there’s plenty of other products that have done worse… Tizen, WebOS, BB10, and more than dozens of others but many of them are still going too.

          So, it didn’t do great but hardly beyond the possibility of redemption… but that doesn’t mean I think things will change on a dime. They’re only starting to do things right now, so the clock is reset and we’ll have to wait another year before we know whether they will succeed and also to give people time to learn and accept that it’s a different platform now and not base their decisions on just their previous bias based on the former system…

          1. While the ability to allow sideloading in Windows 10 is definately a start, you still have to have code signing certificates and signed app packages in order to do so. This is a less restrictive scenario but it will still block the majority of LOB app projects people might otherwise udnertake.

          2. Maybe, but a lot of that depends on how good the developer tools are in practice.

            Much of the process may be automated enough to not make it a issue in some or hopefully most cases… We’ll see but there are definitely more incentives to at least try this time…

  9. Pretty disingenuous to refer to what is essentially a game console-style day 1 patch as “Service Pack 1”.

      1. “Say goodbye to the occasional “service pack” updates of yesteryear and hello to a continually updated operating system that gets features and improvements as they become available.”

        Sure sounds like Brad is trying to equate the two.

        1. No, it’s what MS called it because that’s what it is!

          What exactly did you think a Service Pack was?

          It’s mainly a accumulative release of all previous updates/fixes/patches to make keeping up to date without needing to download every single one individually… There’s no set limit on how many such updates are required to form a Service Release pack!

          It also usually takes 2-3 Service Packs before we get enough changes to equate it to something like a incremental OS update, like W8 to W8.1… So there’s no requirement for there to be any new features, etc. either!

          While a Day 1 patch is a update that specifically fixes specific issue(s) just for that update. It’s not grouping previous updates into a pack but is a new patch/update!

          I think you’re confusing the two because it’s a relatively small Release Pack but Release Packs don’t need to be huge! Especially, as some updates can be redundant or replaced by other updates. So the final accumulated pack is only what’s needed and will even limit the size of the update if you already have some of the included updates installed…

          1. Microsoft hasn’t called anything a Service Pack in many years. I’m not confusing anything…this is a day 1 patch, only difference is that it’s day 7. Besides, all Windows 10 updates are cumulative, are you saying that every update is a Service Pack?

          2. No, not all updates are cumulative… your confusing updates in general, the actual service, with specific updates. A Service Release is basically a check point where all previous releases are grouped into one big pack for easy updating and automatically eliminate redundant updates, etc.

            It’s basically why we call it a pack because it’s just not one of the latest updates but all of them up this point! This is why your download can be smaller if you already have some of the relevant updates/

            While the reason you haven’t heard it in awhile is because they stopped releasing them after Windows 7. Windows 8 didn’t get any service release as they focused on a the incremental OS update instead for a annual release model…

            But now, with a continuous support service they’re going back to Service Release to make the flow of updates less chaotic…

            Mind, it may be a relatively small pack but it still has over 1000 accumulated updates included and they have a invested interest to keep the updates less chaotic going forward as new people try Windows 10…

            Like someone else mentioned the alternative would be to get all the updates from day 1 release till whenever the OS is installed but a SR means the updates can be merged into the present version… Just like the SP1, SP2, SP3 for XP ISOs with each one not requiring you to install all the previous updates as everything up to SP release is included.

            Kinda like a recovery point, allowing you to go back to just that point and not all the way back to the very beginning of the install from day 1…

          3. Go back and read the article, then read the article they linked to. You are full of it.

          4. Sorry but the only one with issue here is you because you apparently can’t tell the difference between cumulative, as in a incremental service that provides updates over time, and a service release that combines those updates into a single reference point update package.

            The original MS blog article wouldn’t say,

            If you have installed previous updates, only the new fixes that are
            contained in this package will be downloaded and installed to your
            computer.”

            If it was just another cumulative update… because cumulative means adding to the previous!

            Really, Windows updates, especially security updates, have always been cumulative but the difference for a Service Release is it combines all the previous into a single reference update point that can also be used to update the install ISO to not require going all the way back to the beginning with a fresh install.

            Windows 10 restore system also allows keeping updates, unlike previous Windows. So a restore/reset doesn’t mean having to re-download all those updates again unless you do a complete clean re-install from the original install ISO.

            So there would be no need to include all the updates unless it was a Service Release!

            While Service Release also serve as housekeeping, allowing them to eliminate all the bad updates and resetting the list for the approved good updates.

            So no need to re-download every version of a specific change, etc.

          5. Here’s the KB article.

            https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3081424

            As always, it has the authoritative information about this patch. Check out the second paragraph. Then check out the KB article it links to, and its second paragraph. Then quit writing novel sized arguments on the internet about things you don’t understand.

          6. Sorry, but you’re really not bothering to even think!

            First, you’re blatantly ignoring what MS is calling it internally! The link isn’t calling it any different than the previous cumulative update but that doesn’t change what MS is using it for. which is what the Internal name references!

            Second, nothing on that page describes what’s actually in it other than what the changes references to… no actual change log is provided!

            But it does say the exact same thing listed in the MS Blog page, which is…

            If you have installed previous updates, only the new fixes that are contained in this package will be downloaded and installed to your computer.”

            Third, you really need to look up the definition of cumulative and realize you are interpreting it wrong!

            Cumulative means adding incrementally over time. Each update doesn’t mean you need to update all previous updates to then get to the present update, but cumulative doesn’t mean grouping a whole bunch of such updates all together!

            That’s what a Service Release is for and this does include over 1000 in that manifest list!

            All of which are for different items being updated and not a cumulative change log list!

            Fourth, Service Release include cumulative updates… Again, like mentioned before they also use it for housekeeping and eliminating all irrelevant updates.

            Fifth, just because they call it cumulative doesn’t mean all the updates are cumulative. Whenever they make actual changes it means making updates that don’t add/change a previous one and without an actual change log no one but MS will know whether this is the case or not, but that is also why the Internal name is relevant!

            Never mind your comparison to a game console day 1 patch is still proven completely wrong either way! So you’re basically arguing nonsense at this point to not be shown that you were wrong from the start!

            Nor have you admitted that all Brad was doing was repeating what the MS Blog had stated!

            Who do you think you’re fooling here?

    1. That’s really what this feels like to me too.

      I wonder how much testing all of these “service releases” get before they’re pushed out. I was in the Insider fast ring a week ago and was still on the RTM build, without any major updates. If they’re releasing significant features this quickly, they’re going to break things.

      1. No features, this was a fixes/patches Service Release… Remember, Windows 10 was a pretty rushed release. So there’s quite a few bugs, etc they need to fix before they can really push it out to more users, which is one of the reasons the automatic app isn’t yet working for everyone and why they’re not pushing it out to everyone at once…

        1. Oh, I misread the post. They’re still releasing a pile of fixes that haven’t been outside MS for more than a week. It feels a little too fast, considering how many regressions there were during the previews of 10.

          1. Well, with some promised features already delayed it doesn’t look like they will rush things too much quite yet and may be actually making sure they work first… It’ll probably be mostly fixes for awhile yet…

  10. No, I still don’t buy this ‘as a service’ thing. Windows has had updates for years and years. Nothing is really different here. And there is no question they will release milestone code, what we previously called Service Pack 1 or the like. They simply won’t name it. But they will definitely periodically update an .iso file for installation. Nobody is going to want to buy an original Win10 iso in three years and then wait for days while it applies all updates since then.

    In the end there is nothing new here other than their intention to not make any more named versions. And that will change too when some marketing yahoo decides they can generate interest/sales with a big campaign for a new version. I doubt we get more than five years from today before that happens.

    1. Nothing is really different here.

      Nothing?

      Previous system = Service Pack once every year and half to two years each… along with maybe no new features for the life of the product…

      New system = SP1 one week after release!… along with new features going to be introduced for the life of the product, like we don’t yet have the option to install WinRT apps anywhere we want but that feature will be given in a future update, among other new features they’re going to introduce later as well.

      So yeah, you keep telling yourself nothing is different here…

      1. The changes this update made (which arent specifically listed anywhere) werent coded in a single week. They have been finished, signed off on and released. These were already in the pipe before or right around July 29th. Today you got a little bit more of a much more polished and complete OS that you would’ve gotten had they waited till their normal Fall release schedule.

        Speaking of that, wait for the big update coming in October that will add more to Windows 10 (which again has been planned for and worked on long before launch). They just shipped a version of Windows that wasnt 100% done.

        Now, I agree that nothing is ever 100% done with a complicated animal like an OS, but the past OS’s were sold and marketed that way, ie: “This new OS provides solutions to your previous problems and current needs.” Windows 10 is marketed as, “This new OS will solve a lot of your previous problems and we’ll probably adapt it to fit your future needs.”

        They want you to trust them that in a year, when everyone hates the clock being in the lower right hand corner with such uproar and fervor that the Start Screen had against it in 8 that they will update and modify Windows 10 to fix it and put it where everyone wants it. They touted this construct ALL thru the Insider Preview, however many, many, many very highly rated suggestions didnt make the final cut or are ignored.

        1. True, but they were rushing a few years worth of normal development out in a matter of just several months. Probably a lot had to be prioritized but it doesn’t necessarily mean they just cut and ignored things you didn’t see change as the system that allows updates for the life of the product doesn’t need to get it all out within a target release date… and the priority was getting it to work first…

          The support period for Windows 10 is also schedules to end October 14, 2025 instead of July 29… So it seems likely they are accounting for a few months it’ll take to get most the fixes out and maybe a few more of those changes they promised…

      2. They did the sr1 because it was broke. No worky. not because they want you to have a flawless user interface. I hate you people can’t stand you

        1. Nonsense, it’s part of the new support/service model… If it was just fixes then we wouldn’t be getting better performance and new features over time… It also wouldn’t be happening so fast…

          Again, previous Windows releases took over a year to three years to get a SP release… Now we’re seeing such releases in a matter of months and that’s a massive difference…

    2. The only real thing about “as a service” is the ability for a Corporation to charge you repeatedly for a “Lease” of their product. What is happening here is a slow erosion (that they hope you won’t notice) where one day you no longer control/own your PC at the OS Layer.

    3. The only thing new here is that now the updates are mandatory. If you don’t like what an update does, that’s too bad MS knows best. From what I understand only the corporate versions will allow manual updating now.

Comments are closed.