Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vide president of modern life and devices opened the event. He talked about Microsoft’s legacy as a productivity-based company and how that will continue. Opening the show with an announcement, Mehdi confirmed Windows 10 October 2018 Update is now available. That’s right, the latest version (1809) of Windows 10 is rolling out to users now. While we knew Microsoft would use the event to finalize the build, it was not obvious the roll out would be immediate. A likely scenario was official discussing the update today and shipping it next week. Microsoft decided to go a different route and just roll out the Windows 10 October 2018 Update straight away.
Last week, we reported Win10 Preview Build 17763 was the release to manufacturing (RTM) build. Microsoft had not gone official but it seems our reasoning was correct as it was the final update on the Redstone 5 preview branch. Today’s Surface event saw Microsoft announce the Surface Pro 6, the Surface Laptop 2 and Surface Studio 2, and the surprise package Surface Headphones.
Redstone
Windows 10 October 2018 Update is the last Redstone release. Microsoft is changing the preview branch to year and half, so the next preview is currently on Skip Ahead under 19H1. Microsoft introduced the Redstone name for the preview branch of the Anniversary Update in 2016. Since then the codename has been used for the subsequent Creators Update, Fall Creators Update, April 2018 Update, and now finally the October 2018 Update.
