- Windows 10 Fall Creators Update installation and features - Thu, Nov 2 2017
- Install Microsoft SQL Server on Ubuntu Linux - Thu, Jan 5 2017
- Use PowerShell with Google Cloud Platform - Thu, Dec 8 2016
According to Microsoft's Windows Blog here, Microsoft recommends waiting for the update to automatically download and install via Windows Update. However, if you want to Update now, download the full version as an ISO, or use the USB Media Creation Tool, you can find those tools at the Software Download Site. In this article, we'll walk through the upgrade via Windows Update as well as the Update Assistant, and then take a look at some of the new OS's features.
Windows 10 Fall Creators Update minimum requirements
Microsoft recommends the following minimum hardware specifications for Windows 10 Version 1709, 10.0.16299 (Codename: "Redstone 3"):
- 1 GHz or faster CPU
- 1 GB RAM for 32-bit or 2GB for 64-bit
- 16 GB HDD free space for 32-bit or 20GB HDD free space for 64-bit
- 800x600 resolution display or greater
Windows 10 Version 1709 Upgrade via Windows Update
When you choose to upgrade Windows 10 via Windows Update, simply go into the Windows 10 Settings, choose Updates and Security, and hit the Check Now button. If your computer has not yet downloaded 1709, Windows Update will begin the download:
Windows update 1709 download
The upgrade will first create a new directory on your System C: drive under the hidden folder named $WINDOWS.~BT:
Windows upgrade folder
The download will complete, and it will request a restart. You can choose to restart at a different time if desired.
Version 1709 restart
After a restart, the rest of the setup is pretty straightforward. It takes about an hour for the upgrade to finish on a 3rd Generation Core i7 with an SSD HDD. Once complete, as a note, my desktop upgrade asked me to answer questions pertaining to telemetry settings; however, the upgrade of my laptop did not. Another note is that the upgrade changed my default power settings, putting my desktop to sleep after 45 minutes of inactivity, when I had not previously set a sleep timer.
Windows 10 Version 1709 upgrade via Windows Update Assistant
If your Windows Update does not download the Fall Creators Update 1709 on its own, you can still install the newest version by using the Update Assistant.
Download Update Assistant
Clicking Update now will download the Update Assistant:
Update Assistant application
Executing the assistant will first perform a version check and then a compatibility check:
Update Assistant version check
Windows 10 Update Assistant compatibility check
Following the compatibility check, the Update Assistant will work in the background to download and prepare the upgrade:
Windows 10 Update Assistant progress
Following the installation, a few restarts, and logging in, you'll be greeted with a welcome screen:
Creators Update Edge welcome screen
Windows 10 Version 1709 Fall Creators Update new features
To get a list of what is new in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, you can click on "Learn More" on the Edge welcome screen, or click on the Start button and type "Tips" into the Cortana search bar. Here in Tips, you will find more information on the latest features, including:
- Add emojis from your keyboard by pressing Windows Key + period (.)
- Mixed reality viewer (Virtual reality headset not required – works with your webcam)
- Voice-to-text dictation
- Mobile phone integration
- Enhanced Pen & Windows Ink features
- Enhanced e-book features
- Pin Edge webpages to the taskbar
- A new People app and the pinning of contacts to the taskbar
- Place Skype calls from taskbar
- Additional personalization features for the look and feel of Windows 10
- The addition of a GPU monitor in the Performance tab of the Task Manager
Creators Update Task Manager
Conclusion
With the release of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, Microsoft has given its users the 3rd free upgrade to its Windows 10 operating system in a pain-free update. In the event that you want to block or delay the upgrade, Microsoft has provided the ability to schedule, defer, or stop the upgrade on a metered internet connection in its Windows Update > Advanced Settings dialog.
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I find this 1709 update to be refreshing and encountered no problems with the upgrade process. Let us know in the comments below if your 1709 upgrade has any annoyances, issues, peculiarities, or glitches. We'll keep an eye on the Fall Creators Update and post back if we find anything else of interest to discuss.
Using the Check for updates method, tried 2 times to upgrade but each time it updated, restarted 3 times then reverted to earlier version – 1703 15063.674. After searching the net, tried again but unplugged network cable during restart and this time it was successful. Don’t know if it’s a NIC driver issue or some handshake with MS server causing the issue.
Where are you finding version 1703? In the computer system properties? If this is the case, you may already be in version 1709. I believe the 1709 version displays itself as version 1703 on some types of Windows 10 in the system properties. I just upgraded another one of my systems here and it says the same thing, Version 1703 OS Build 15063.674.
Open Run dialogue and type winver, press Enter. After the successful update, it showed as 1709 xxxxx.19 – don’t recall the build number now. Maybe your upgrade was from 1703 15063.632 to 1703 15063.674 with 674 being the last update to build 15063. All of the machines I have updated to 1709 display as 1709 not 1703.
Yes agreed, and now I am using Winver all the time haha. One of my desktops that has 1703 is taking forever to install 1709, Windows Update is running and it’s taken 7 hours to get to 16%. There are no indications that there is a problem, the event viewer > System only says “Installation Started: Windows has started installing the following update: Feature update to Windows 10 version 1709. The CPU is hovering around 30 % percent and Ethernet is 14-30kbps. It has been doing this for a long time – has anyone else seen this behavior?
7 hours to get to 16% is nuts. Perhaps you could turn on the peer to peer settings to ease future updates…
I did another test yesterday using a different but similar older PC – ASUS mainboard with only 2GB RAM. It took 4 hours to get to 100% downloaded – we’re on a 500mbps fibre connection – then it reverted to 1703 after the restart. Second time it was only 1 hour to get to the restart button. This time I unplugged the network cable and it is now successfully on 1709. I’ve just finished testing a HP ProOne 600 G1 and it too reverted to 1703 after the restart. I have 200 of these on site so that’s a worry.
Do you see any indication why they are reverting? Does unplugging the network cable force an update without validation do you think? Perhaps my using this bloatware script after the first 1703 reversion caused the issue? I’m going to try a different test machine, upgrade 1703 to 1709 without using the bloatware script to see if that is the issue. I’ll report back tomorrow.
So my 8-hour upgrade from 1703.332 to 1703.674 to v1709 completed just fine, FYI this was a new Dell with Core i5-7500, & 8 GB memory on a 100MB Network connection. Disk Cleanup after the upgrades will free up 45GB of used disk space – a good amount considering the SSD on the system is only 120GB.
No indication on why the upgrade failed. When I look at history there are 2 messages about it requiring a restart to finish the upgrade but no amount of restarting makes any difference. There are also no events that help. I’ve also looked at the $Windows.~BT folder as there’s supposed to be a RollBack folder there with logs but no such folder exists. I’m testing a HP ProOne 400 G1 this morning that is on 1607 14393 and it has just finished downloading 1709. Interesting that it skips going to 1703 first. Hopefully this works as I also have 200 of these but I already upgraded them to 1703. Hope 1703 to 1709 is not the issue here!
This update took a few hours, I went to bed and let the laptop pleases itself. When I woke up, my Asus laptop lost its Asus Smart Gestures, I have to reinstate it from the installation software folder, then when I tried to launch paint shop pro 8, it was asking for the cdrom so that windows can be configured to run it. Put in the cdrom and it is now running PSP correctly.Then I have to run disk cleanup to get rid of that windows.old folder which took 45 minutes to complete.
In conclusion, I am not pleased with his update
I updated to the Fall Creators Update a couple of weeks ago I think. So far, so good.
I have a program written in Visual Basic which makes use of the MS Office automation functionality to create a Word document in the background and then open it on completion. This works fine in build 1703 but in build 1709, if Excel and/or Outlook are already open, the Word document is “frozen” and has to be minimized and maximized in order for it to be active. Not sure is anybody else has experienced anything similar and found a solution?
I’ve seen older VB apps break recently because of an Update Rollup, KB4041681. Read up on the KB and then try uninstalling the update from add/remove programs > view installed windows updates and test to see if the problem persists?
Immediately following Windows 10, version 1709 upgrade, Excel 2007 feature to save spreadsheets as PDF files will not function.
Good to know, thanks for the input, but yeah, probably time to upgrade office!
I allowed my laptop to update to 1709. My laptop’s graphics are onboard Intel HD4000, with which I have two external LG monitors, using either Windows10 or Displayfusion to configure the settings. After the update to 1709, Windows 10 no longer allowed the Intel HD4000 drivers, and overwrote them with the generic Windows one, with the result that Windows does not recogneise the other monitors at all. I contacted Intel, who could only refer me to the latest drivers for IntelHD4000, which still didn’t work. mI contacted the manufactruere of the laptop (Proline) who advised they no longer support the machine. I tried to roll back to 1603, using the control panel etc, but the rollback failed and just sat there for 36 hours. I had to get to the uninstall update functionality via the inistial Windows startup screen/power/advanced route, which gave me back version 1603, and my double monitor functionality. I disabled the Windows update via my registry, so I am safe from the 1709 update, but cannot update the Office updates (I am alerted to the updates, tell it to go ahead, but then nothing). So, sooner or later I will have to buy a new machine.
Hi, Chris thanks for the reply. I didn’t find anything where there is a minimum video card requirement, so thanks for the heads up. Sorry that you had to go through the upgrade/downgrade. An alternative is external USB video with either a dongle or docking station.
I do know there is another hardware limitation, but this is the opposite where you won’t be able to run Windows 7 on the newer CPU’s; Windows will alert you that features will be disabled until you upgrade to Windows 10. Link Here