“October 2018” in November

Made-in-Microsoft humor? © Microsoft.

Just over a month since its initial release, Microsoft is making the Windows 10 October Update (the new name for the old “Fall Creators Update”) once again available, but only for select customers (those skilled users who manually tell their system to check for updates). The update was withdrawn shortly after its initial release due to the discovery of a major bug causing data loss for some users: the program could erase gigabytes of personal documents, images, and music files without warning. This panic-inducing event led some to doubt Microsoft’s QA and testing procedures. The mishap is all the more surprising because pre-release users repeatedly alerted the company about the problem on its Feedback Hub. Here’s hoping that this update of “October 2018 Update” will be more reliable. This whole affair is a reminder of the importance of doing backups.

⇨ Computerworld, “Microsoft takes second swing at Windows 10 1809, re-issues troubled upgrade.”