1809 MiniITX PC Gets 1903 Update Offer
Just for grins, I’ve held one of the PCs here at Chez Tittel in abeyance. My wife’s mini-ITX PC is built around a Jetway QM77 mobo with a mobile quad core i7 3630. It’s also got 16 GB of DDR3 RAM, and a Samsung EVO 840 250 GB SSD (SATA3). I deliberately left it running 1809 to see how long it would take for WU to offer 1903. This morning, that 1908 MiniITX PC gets 1903 update offer, and now it’s installed. That took a while, didn’t it? Here’s what winver.exe now proudly displays on her desktop:
That took a while, didn’t it?
Why 1809 MiniITX PC Gets 1903 Update Offer Takes So Long?
Let’s do some calendar math. Using the handy-dandy Date Calculator at TimeandDate.com, I determined that it’s 64 days from May 21, 2019 through today. May 21 is the date from Microsoft’s Windows 10 release information page that indicates that’s when the OS version hit the Semi-Annual Channel. Thus, it took just over two months for this particular PC to attain the status of “ready to receive 1903.” This PC does have two USB-attached hard disks (one for backups, one for extended storage). Thus, I believe MS waited for the blocking problem with USB-attached storage cards and media to clear.
Alas though, we’ll never know for sure. MS isn’t transparent about the criteria it uses to queue up systems for feature upgrades nowadays. But given that this system is home to an Ivy Bridge CPU (which were current from Q3 2011 through 2013), this doesn’t represent new technology. Still, it’s been a rock-solid, trouble-free “surf’n’email” machine for “the Boss” for 7 years and longer. Because she really doesn’t care what version of Win10 she’s running — as long as things work to her satisfaction — I was able to conduct this little experiment in patience and fortitude.
How the Upgrade to 1903 Proceeded
It took a good while to download and apply the upgrade. My best guess is the total time involved was just under two hours. At the end of that road, it showed the most current 1903 build (18362.239). So far the machine is running without any obvious hitches. I’m sure if something goes sideways, the Boss will be calling for IT support — me — soon thereafter. And so it goes, here in Windows-World.