Windows 10 Update Timeline

This illustration shows the timeline for making a new version update available and for deploying it in a timely manner. The portion of the timeline with the white arrows in the illustration shows parts of the timeline controlled by Microsoft, while customers can manage aspects of the deployment shown in the dark arrows.

A key part of this timeline, labeled New Version Throttled Release here, is the time between when an update exits the Windows Insider Preview phase and is approved by Microsoft for release via Windows Update and when the update is made generally available to any and all devices on the Semi-Annual Channel. During Throttled Release, an update will generally be rolled out to an initial set of the eligible devices before progressing to the entire set of devices to ensure it is not creating problems on devices as it is deployed. The initial set is programmatically selected by Microsoft and is typically both highly active and representative of targeted clusters of hardware ID (HWID) and computer hardware ID (CHID) combinations. As Microsoft gains confidence in the quality of the update, the update is offered to more target sets.