In less than a month, on April 11th, 2017, Windows Vista will officially lose support. While Vista only has .78% of market share currently, and continues to drop, there are still users that continue to run the old operating system.

Personally, Vista was one of my favorite Microsoft operating system releases. I upgraded to Windows 7 as soon as I could, but Vista was definitely a strong OS that did great. Farewell, old friend.  

After April 11, 2017, Windows Vista customers will no longer receive new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options, or online technical content updates from Microsoft. Microsoft has provided support for Windows Vista for the past 10 years, but the time has come for us, along with our hardware and software partners, to invest our resources towards more recent technologies so that we can continue to deliver great new experiences.

Fast Ring Insiders can now update to build 15055.  What do we get this time? A lot of fixes! It’s getting close to the final release of the Creators Update!

• If you have Symantec/Norton anti-virus software installed on your PC, you should no longer get an 0x80070228 error when attempting to download this build. Symantec released updated anti-virus definitions last week that fixes this issue. Please make sure your Symantec/Norton anti-virus software has the most up-to-date anti-virus definitions BEFORE taking trying to install today’s build.

Fast Ring Insiders for Windows 10 should see build 15048 available for download. A few fixes this build. A couple more known bugs, as well. As always – please read the release notes from the blog page. I see a lot of posts in various forums mentioning, complaining, and reporting these known and documented bugs.

Insiders with multiple monitors may encounter an issue where one of the monitors stops rendering (with the exception of the mouse). While rebooting will fix it, you can also resolve the issue via Settings > System > Display under the Multiple displays section, set it to only use the monitor that’s functional, then set it back to “Extend these displays” and the issue should be resolved.

Microsoft has posted a blog post on the way updates and privacy controls are handled with the new Windows 10 Creators Update. This one is going to save a lot of heartache, a lot of complaints in many forums, and generally fix one of the major complaints with Windows 10.

Prior to the Creators Update, Windows 10 made most of the decisions for you regarding when updates would be installed and didn’t provide ways to tailor the timing to your specific needs. What we heard back most explicitly was that you want more control over when Windows 10 installs updates. We also heard that unexpected reboots are disruptive if they happen at the wrong time.

It’s getting closer to the release of the Creators Update. The newest build, 15046, has been released to fast ring Windows Insiders for Windows 10. A lot more fixes, a few new things. Looking better every week!

Color of Cortana’s home on the taskbar: You had a LOT of opinions on this topic and we have been loving the enthusiastic feedback coming in! We finished our experiment with the color of Cortana’s home on the taskbar and for now, it’s back to the color it was before. Thanks for your feedback on this change.

For those Windows Insiders that took part in the recent Bug Bash, Anita George has published a post going into the the “Behind the Scenes”. I really enjoy the Bug Bash and the fun and the enthusiasm with the Windows team. From doing the multiple quests to the Beam webcasts to offering and upvoting feedback, I really enjoy it. It does give a sense of inclusion with the process of making Windows 10 a better product.

The blog post is a good insight into what goes into these Bug Bashes. I’m sure a lot of queso is involved, as well.

I’m sure there will be more Bug Bashes in the future, and I encourage you to join in if you have the time and the desire. It really is a fun part of the process!

Hi! My name is Anita George, and I am the leader of the two Bug Bashes for the Windows 10 Creators Update (the one in November 2016 and the one we just finished up in Feb). For this most recent Bug Bash, Windows Insiders completed approximately 108,900 Quests and submitted or upvoted an astounding 115,100 feedback items! Thank you so much to everyone that took the time to Bug Bash with us. The level of participation was just incredible! So what goes into running a Bug Bash? I’d like to take some time to explain the behind-the-scenes work that happens to make a Bug Bash successful.

Great news! Build 15042 for PC has been released for Fast Ring insiders. Note: this is only for x64 PC’s and 32 bit PC’s will be blocked as there is a bug for 32 bit.

Today we are excited to be releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 15042 for PC and Build 15043 for Mobile to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. We have discovered a bug that impacts our ability to release this build to PCs running 32-bit (x86) versions of Windows 10 Insider Preview builds. Because the majority of Insiders in the Fast ring have PCs running 64-bit (x64) – we decided to go ahead and release this build with 32-bit PCs blocked until our next flight. Also – please read the known issues below.

Microsoft has extended the Windows Insider program to include IT Professionals. There is a distinct line with consumer level products and focus and the enterprise, IT Professional, focus. Many IT Pro’s are currently Windows Insiders and some run their newer builds within a domain (mostly in a lab setting, but some do in production as well). As long as you accept that the Insiders rings are capable of breaking things, it’s a good way to stay ahead of the curve and learn the newer features that will impact your job in the near future.

The Windows Insider Program recognizes IT Professionals as a critical asset to any organization. From managing complex environments that incorporate Microsoft systems, to managing how they integrate with other applications inside their organization, IT Professionals understand ‘mission critical’ and know how to think through and resolve deployment issues. They are the front-line IT heroes of any organization. But we don’t have to tell you this.

In the coming months, we’ll be adding additional features to the existing Windows Insider Program to better support you in your job. Incorporating the Windows Insider Program for IT Professionals into your deployment plans enables you to prepare your organization for Windows 10, to deploy new services and tools more quickly, to secure your applications, to increase productivity giving you confidence in the stability of your environment.

This Valentines Day, Microsoft has brought Hello Kitty to Actiongram on HoloLens. Bringing the Sanrio iconic little cat  and her friends to augmented reality looks pretty cool. Yea, I”m a Hello Kitty fan.

Microsoft has delayed it’s patches for this months Patch Tuesday due to a last minute issue. There are no estimated times for when they will be resolved and released. This was the first month with Microsoft’s new process without the bulletin summary as was done in the past.

Our top priority is to provide the best possible experience for customers in maintaining and protecting their systems. This month, we discovered a last minute issue that could impact some customers and was not resolved in time for our planned updates today.

After considering all options, we made the decision to delay this month’s updates. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this change to the existing plan.