Microsoft will continue to offer feature updates, like the Anniversary Update, for Windows 10 as an 'Upgrade Installation', where a new installation of the OS is carried out and existing data is transferred. This way of updating has often led to issues.
Feature updates will continue to be implemented as the so-called upgrade installations in the foreseeable future, according to Microsoft against German website Heise. This means that Windows is reinstalled and the data from the existing installation is transferred to the new one. A method which has always caused issues, such as missing data or applications, or even problems with booting Windows.
According to Michael Niehaus, Director of Product Marketing at Microsoft, the company tries to make the upgrade process ' work perfect'. Anything that fails during the upgrade is a bug that should be reported to Microsoft so the company can squash it. Also Windows Insiders are increasingly helping with the early detection of issues.
Microsoft is also working on the size of Windows 10 upgrades. Whether Microsoft might release binary delta upgrades, where only actual changes to files need to be downloaded, Niehaus didn't want to confirm, but he stated that Microsoft is aware about the size of upgrade and working on it.
One of the biggest obstacles is that with every upgrade almost all system utilities and libraries are changed. The biggest potential for downsizing updates is therefore probably graphics, fonts and other files that aren't changed frequently.
