In addition to privacy issues, one of the biggest problems that users have had with Microsoft's Windows 10 is the massive size of updates being rolled out for the operating system.
The issue was addressed by Microsoft in November of last year, with the company providing users with a sneak peek at the Unified Update Platform through the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14959.
What Is Microsoft's Unified Update Platform?
The Unified Update Platform is the system through which Microsoft is planning to reduce future updates to Windows 10, making them more seamless and lowering processing power requirements.
The UUP is basically made up of several changes behind-the-scenes, including delivering only the portion of the Windows 10 update that is relevant to the user's device. Microsoft then said that PC users could expect to see updates that are smaller by 35 percent once the feature is implemented.
Microsoft released an update on its progress on the UUP through a post on the official Windows blog, where it explained that in addition to only having users download the portion of the Windows 10 update that will be used by their device, the UUP will also allow differential download packages. What this means is that download packages for Windows 10 updates will also only contain the changes that have been added to the operating system since the previous update was applied, instead of a full build of Windows 10 being downloaded and installed each time.
How Much Space Does The UUP Save?
According to Microsoft, the UUP has been in place for Windows Insiders for a while, with the company revealing data to back up its claim that the new system will reduce the size of Windows 10 updates.
Through a graph, Microsoft showed that Windows 10 Insider updates with a canonical download that is containing the full build of the operating system had a median download size of 2.56 GB. Windows 10 Insider updates with a differential download, on the other hand, only had a median download size of 910 MB.
These figures show that Microsoft actually outdid itself with its 35 percent claim of reduced update sizes, as the Windows 10 Insider builds with differential downloads were nearly 65 percent smaller.
It should be noted, however, that the 65 percent update size reduction will only be experienced by users participating in Windows 10 Insider program, as the updates sent out for preview versions of the operating system happen much more often compared to updates that are released for regular users. There are many more changes in between the major releases for regular Windows 10 users compared to the releases for Windows 10 Insiders.
That said, regular Windows 10 users will still be experiencing the previously promised 35 percent reduction in update size, which is still a significant decrease.
When Will Users Experience The Benefits Of The UUP?
The UUP will be incorporated into the upcoming Creators Update, and so regular users will not be experiencing the benefit of the feature until the next major update for Windows 10, which is slated to be released within the year and currently codenamed Redstone 3.
The Creators Update will also introduce a new Snooze feature and provide users with more control over their privacy settings, though European Union watchdogs are still not impressed with the upcoming changes.
