The Windows 10 October Update, version 1809, is now available for Windows 10 users.

As is traditional, Microsoft will be doing a staged rollout, using machine learning to better detect issues and incompatibilities while offering the update as quickly as possible to as many Windows 10 users as possible.

The update will soon be delivered automatically over Windows Update, but if you don't want to wait, performing a manual check for updates will fetch and install the update immediately (as long as your system isn't known to be incompatible). Microsoft has been attempting to make the automatic updates less annoying, for example by not updating when the machine is idle only for a short time, and advising laptop users to leave their machines plugged in overnight so that it can update without interrupting them.

The update itself should also cause less downtime. Microsoft has been pushing more of the update process into the pre-reboot installation stage to make the offline post-reboot stage (during which your PC is unusable) shorter. The company claims that the October update shortens that downtime by some 31 percent relative to the April update.