The latest test build finally fixing the glaring flaw in superfluous backups, freeing up 25+ GB; Recycling Bin also gets a new look
On Wednesday Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) announced that its Fast Ring testers (including me) would receive a fresh Preview Build of its upcoming free major operating system upgrade, Windows 10. My first attempt to snag the new Build 10061 didn’t succeed, but nothing was lost but a bit of time, on the plus side. It politely rolled me back to Build 10049. And today another update came down the pipe, presumably with some sort of modifications that allowed it to install without a hitch.
I. Shockingly Fast Install
This time around, rather than downloading and failing due to insufficient space, Windows Update properly did a check of the free space and warned me that I would need to free up some hard drive space (5+ GB) to be precise) in order to receive the new build. Given the semi-automated nature of the Build upgrades (via Windows Update), this was a critical improvement for many hardware configurations which come with a smaller allotment of internal storage.
And that wasn’t the only improvement I saw early on. With the second attempt, I immediately noticed another positive improvement over past builds — a marked speedup in installation time.
Despite being similar in size to Build 10049, Build 10061 installed in around a third of the time. Where as the Build 10049 install took a grueling hour and a half, Build 10061’s entire installation process took around 30 minutes — although results will likely vary based on hardware (presumably my install would be on the faster side, given that my storage is all solid state).
One nice convenience is that Microsoft appears to be front loading more of the install process. Where as the Build 10049 launched within minutes of download, the Build 10061 sat for roughly 15 minutes “preparing for installation.” I’m not sure what that means from a technical standpoint (decompressing files? hardware-specific configuration?) but the net impact seems to be that roughly half your “installation” time is spent in the Windows environment, with the other half (15 minutes) distributed roughly amongst the three phases of the native installation tool (which lasted roughly 5 minutes each).
Read More: DailyTech – Windows 10 Build 10061: A Quick Review.