Windows 10 Anniversary Update and the Support Branch Roadmap

The Windows 10 Anniversary Update was released on Aug. 2, 2016 as Current Branch (CB) and shortly afterward as Long-Term Servicing Branch (LTSB). It follows the original release of Current Branch for Business (CBB) and CB on July 29, 2015, (1507) and a second CB on Nov. 12, 2015, which became the second CBB on Apr. 8, 2016. The other releases (version numbers and dates in italics) represent Directions on Microsoft’s estimates of when the next service branch releases might occur.

Feature Upgrades released as service branches roll out first to computers that receive CB, which is the supported Windows 10 support branch for Windows 10 Home and for computers on other enrolled Windows 10 editions. CB releases could affect organizations even if they have not deployed Windows 10 widely, because the Anniversary Update will appear on personal devices used by employees at work.

Feature Upgrades released as CB will later roll out to computers on CBB, which is available to organizations with Windows 10 Pro or Windows 10 Enterprise, typically four months after being released. Organizations will be able to defer this upgrade two months to eight months before they will have no choice but to take the new Feature Upgrade. Computers on CBB will eventually have to move to the latest CBB because Microsoft only offers security and bug fixes for the two most recent instances of CBB.