Microsoft has begun offering ‘Windows Feature Experience Pack’ for Windows 10 operating system. The intention behind the new feature is to decouple new innovations from Cumulative Feature Updates.
Microsoft Windows 10 could offer the ability to selectively update a few components of the OS. Moreover, users need not wait for the twice-a-year Cumulative Feature Updates.
Needless to mention, these large updates have been quite troublesome for Windows 10 users as well as Microsoft. They have caused system freezes, slowdowns, BSOD, crashes, and negatively impacted performance in the recent past.
What is the ‘Windows Feature Experience Pack’?
Microsoft has just announced a new concept called the “Windows Feature Experience Pack”. The company plans to address one of the grudges of users regarding the long wait for new features and functionalities.
With the pack, Microsoft could bring more features and regular fixes throughout the year. Currently, the company keeps Windows 10 users waiting for two big blockbuster updates. Microsoft sends these in the Spring and Autumn.
Microsoft introducing ‘Windows Feature Experience Packs’ to replace scheduled updates – https://t.co/M9XDwRekZA pic.twitter.com/VArrAdfKcM
— NightWatcher (@NightWatcher6) December 8, 2020
Feature Experience Pack will allow Microsoft to roll out minor features and OS improvements away from these main Cumulative Feature upgrades. Moreover, it could be easier for the tech giant to address those irritating issues and bugs that so often start appearing right after the big upgrades are pushed out to Windows 10 PCs.
Explaining the new concept, Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc said, “We are testing a new process for delivering new feature improvements to our customers outside of major Windows 10 feature updates. Through the Windows Feature Experience Pack, we can improve certain features and experiences that are now developed independently of the OS.”
Windows Insider Program participants testing ‘Feature Experience Pack’:
Currently, the pack-based system is under testing. Windows Insider program participants will get the opportunity to test the new feature update delivery method. Eventually, Microsoft could start delivering such pack-based updates to Windows 10 users through standard Windows Updates.
While Microsoft claims this is new, the company had quietly tested the feature earlier. Interestingly, a placeholder by this exact name had appeared in Microsoft Store. This means Microsoft was experimenting with delivering select features and functionalities as Downloadable Content or DLC through its app store.
@Microsoft‘s newest @Windows ‘Feature Experience Packs’ are set to offer smaller updates to Windows 10 users more regularly. The first pack includes the ability to use the built-in screen snipping app to paste screenshots directly into folders.https://t.co/sjpYfKnpMF #windows10
— Velocity Group (@velocitygroupsa) December 8, 2020
But now, Microsoft seems to have settled on the traditional OS update system to deliver the ‘Windows Feature Experience Pack’. It is not clear what this method will address or if it will reduce the number of bugs, crashes, and other weird behavior of Windows 10, especially after updates arrive.
It is, however, important to note that such pack updates will not impact the traditional Cumulative Update. This biannual event will occur as planned. That said, Microsoft has suspended its Windows 10 changes until the new year rolls in. Hence there will not be any new features for Windows 10 this year.