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The April 2018 Update is so 1803, snort Windows 10 faithful as more settle down in 1903 town

Latest build hits 11% usage, year-old code still reigns at 54%

Microsoft's OS hangover from last year continued to recede this month as uptake of the Windows 10 May 2019 Update (1903) jumped, mostly at the expense of April 2018's code dump (1803).

Figures from ad slingers AdDuplex (based on a sample of 100,000 PCs) show usage of 1903 has crested double figures at 11.4 per cent, up from 6.3 per cent the previous month.

The growth appears to be mostly at the expense of 1803, which dropped to 53.7 per cent from 58 per cent. 1809 (the October 2018 Update, aka The Update Of The Damned) continued its slow decline from its lofty 31.3 per cent peak in May to 29.7 per cent in July.

After the frantic rate at which Microsoft flung out OS updates in recent years, the change in strategy is marked. The company had infamously inflicted feature updates on PCs as soon as "our data gave us confidence that device would have a great update experience".

However, the definition of "great experience" seemed suspiciously close to "Argh! Make it stop! Make it stop!" for a number of users and Microsoft changed tack with the May 2019 Update. Rather than having Microsoft's latest and greatest forcibly rammed onto their PCs, users would be politely told an update was there for the taking but, hey, no need to actually download and install it unless you want to.

And even once downloaded, Home and Pro users could delay that install by up to 35 days if needed.

The proviso was that Windows 10 would automatically update once a user's current version was "nearing the end of support". 1803 is now less than four months from end of service for non-Enterprise or Education editions and July's figures indicate that this has indeed begun to happen, as promised by the Windows Update team.

Based on this "four months = near end of service" rule, 1809 should start following suit in January 2020, around the time Windows 7 is finally shoved off its perch.

Assuming, heaven forbid, "consistency" is a thing in the world of the Windows team. ®

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