Understanding Windows 10 Release Branches

Starting with Windows 10, new OS features arrive at distinct times, depending on the branch that users or organizations elect to deploy on systems. Current Branch (CB) receives feature upgrades first, roughly every four months. The CB release occurs after users in the Windows Insider Preview program have used the release to find and report problems to Microsoft. Three months of cumulative servicing updates (wrench icons shown here) are followed up with a new feature upgrade (gear icons shown here), which is an entire build of Windows. CB is the required service branch for Windows 10 Home edition, and an optional service branch for Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise.

Just ahead of the feature upgrade, a snapshot is taken of CB, resulting in an entire feature upgrade of Windows that contains the latest servicing updates, which becomes the next Current Branch for Business (CBB) release. Organizations can stay on a CBB release until the second CBB release in the sequence appears, generally eight months later. For example, an organization that deployed build X would need to migrate to X+1 or X+2, when X+2 is released in order to get support. Feature upgrades arrive in CBB approximately four months after CB. Only Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise are eligible for CBB.