We've been expecting the next version of Windows to work differently when it comes to updates and upgrades, and with the release of the Windows 10 Technical Preview, Microsoft's intentions are a little clearer.

The current Windows update model is superficially simple, but it has a few complexities. Every so often, the company releases a major update to Windows. In theory, that version of the operating system remains essentially unaltered for its lifetime. It receives critical (security) updates on a monthly basis (Patch Tuesday), and periodic non-security bug fixes (both monthly and as larger Service Packs), but significant functional changes are reserved for the next operating system version.

This policy, with rules such as "Service Packs don't add features," was publicly propagated. But it was never really true. Service Packs didn't add new features, except when they did. Windows XP Service Pack 2 was, in modern parlance, "Windows XP R2," or perhaps "Windows XP point 1." It was recognizable as Windows XP, but it included a bunch of new, security-oriented features in the core operating system and Internet Explorer 6. It also made some breaking changes to enhance security at the possible expense of application compatibility.

In practice, each Windows release wasn't static, instead evolving over the course of its life and randomly picking up new features on an ad-hoc basis. The feature development was always a little limited; Microsoft's engineering effort was still oriented to large, infrequent updates, and the new features generally didn't do much to change the way Windows looked or felt; in this regard, Windows XP Service Pack 2, with its highly visible changes, was unusual. These updates, whether security or feature updates, were delivered to every Windows user at the same time, both consumer and enterprise.

As such, the Windows platform improved quite unpredictably. New features could be introduced at almost any time.

At the same time, Microsoft wasn't well positioned to make larger, more visible changes. While consumers might be reasonably happy with incremental improvement (and are arguably becoming trained to expect such incremental improvements in their smartphones, Web apps, and Web browsers), many enterprise customers are unwilling to accept frequent changes, and when there are regulatory concerns, they may even be unable to accept them.

New Windows, new updating

With Windows 10, the update approach is set to change substantially. Microsoft is acknowledging the need, and even desirability, of making regular incremental improvements to its operating system. It's also, however, acknowledging the different appetite for change between consumers and enterprise users.

While all users, both enterprise and otherwise, will be using the same core operating system, for the first time, there will be different update policies for different kinds of user. The old fiction of not making feature changes to a shipping operating system is finally being put to bed.

Windows 10 will receive a steady stream of both feature updates and security updates. Security fixes will work the way they work today: published monthly, installed to most people's computers automatically. Feature updates, however, will have three different release speeds. At one end of the scale will be the consumer release: as soon as new features are available, they'll be distributed to users. This is how Windows will deliver continuous improvement the way platforms like Chrome OS and Windows Phone do already.

At the other end will be opting out of the feature updates entirely, for those situations where anything beyond a security fix isn't acceptable. This will be how Windows 10 handles mission-critical systems and environments where strict validation or certification are issues. It will also be the option for those organizations that don't want to risk introducing any unfamiliarity or interface changes.

There will also be an intermediate option—something that lets businesses keep up with new features but lets them control when those new features are rolled out, to ensure they won't disrupt business processes or otherwise happen at inopportune moments. Windows 10 will support mixed deployments, too, with different systems at different speeds. This will give admins a good opportunity to, for example, have a few machines running at the consumer pace and act as canaries for the rest of their organization, which might use the intermediate option for most machines and the "security fixes only" setting for some critical systems.

Our understanding is that even with this continuous delivery of new features, Microsoft will occasionally update the Windows version number. This will both provide a name to attach to big updates and an update route for those using the most conservative update policy.

In conjunction with these changes, we're likely to see the end of "Service Packs" and their corresponding installer. Individual hotfixes and the full operating system installer used for bare systems will cover all the install and update scenarios.

Inside information

Between now and Windows 10's launch in the middle of next year, Microsoft is running the Windows Insider program. Superficially, this program looks a lot like Windows beta programs of the past, but it's not quite the same. Microsoft is gathering more information about how people use the operating system and what they like (or don't like) about it.

Some of this is an extension of the instrumentation and data collection that Windows has always had, but other aspects are new. The Technical Preview will periodically ask users questions about the experiences they've had—things like "Was video playback OK?" after you use Media Player—and Microsoft is openly soliciting feedback and suggestions for the operating system.

The biggest difference, however, is that the Insider Program probably won't stop. Windows betas traditionally end when Windows leaves beta and has its formal release. After all, there's no real need to keep running a beta version of an operating system when a non-beta is available. But Windows 10 will be a bit different; because it will receive a steady stream of feature updates, it will need a steady stream of beta testing.

Microsoft personnel we spoke to wouldn't guarantee that the Insider program would continue after the release of Windows 10, but they did say that it was highly likely. And it would make perfect sense; it would provide a large scale testing ground for these new features as they're developed, ensuring that they're given thorough real-world testing before they're rolled out more broadly.

Indeed, Microsoft would probably struggle to reliably release regular updates to consumers without this kind of ongoing beta scheme. Both Google and Mozilla have similar systems for their browsers—interested users can run a release ahead of the mainstream release, ideally providing the real-world testing to ensure that nothing is egregiously broken. It's an effective system that provides great confidence in the stable releases.

There are even some indications of how these release streams might look in the finished operating system. As reported by Neowin last week, with a couple of registry entries, the Windows 10 settings app picks up some new configurable options. One sets the speed of updates, the other sets which branch of development to get updates from.

Currently, these settings are essentially non-functional, at least for everyone outside Microsoft's corporate network. But we can see how this could get opened up, with the "speed of updates" used to control how fast (if at all) a machine receives security updates, and the development branch used to switch between the stable release and the Insider program.

While this has obvious application to desktop systems, we wouldn't be tremendously surprised if at some point an equivalent set of options materialized for Windows Server, too. It won't be for everyone, but semi-regular server releases are not without precedent. In the open source world, server platforms are updated every bit as often as their desktop counterparts. Ubuntu's twice-annual major versions, for example, include both desktop and server versions. Platform-as-a-service cloud providers can routinely update the underlying operating system.

While most server users might not be too interested in user interface enhancements, things like performance improvements, extended hardware support, and richer management options are all likely to come down the update pipeline at some point, and these can be just as welcome on the server as they are on the desktop.

Whether this comes to pass or not, it's clear that Windows 10 is going to be very different for users and administrators alike. The potential upside is much quicker evolution of Windows, with end-users enjoying an operating system that gets better sooner. The risks are bugs and instability—pushing updates that don't work or break some users' machines. It will take time for the company to demonstrate that it has a reliable pipeline for update development, testing, and delivery, and until it proves its ability to do so, corporate assessments and adoption of Windows 10 could be every bit as sceptical as it is of Windows 8.