While Microsoft is putting the final polish on Windows 10 ahead of its release next week, it's time to start looking at what's next for the OS. While we broke the news about Redstone a few months back, there is another update wave planed for Windows 10 and it's starting to come into focus.

Threshold wave 2 is scheduled to be the first (non-patch) update to the OS after it is released and the current timeline is October. But what will it include? According to those familiar with the company's plans, not much in the way of new features are currently planned, as the primary goal is to continue working on optimization and stabilization for the OS.

Which makes quite a bit of sense- for one thing, the update will arrive only three months after the release of the OS. During that time, Microsoft will be receiving a significant amount of new telemetry from new hardware configurations and they need to make sure Windows 10 properly works with these machines.

For those not familiar, Windows 10 was code-named Threshold, which is why this updates is named Threshold wave 2.

Microsoft is said to be quite strict about what new items can be added with this update at this time, so we will be curious to see if the once-promised, but never talked about, Skype desktop messaging app will make it in this release or if it will be part of Redstone. It does seem like the delayed app-installs to an SD card with Windows 10 should arrive with this update, since it was initially targeted for July but was delayed near the end of development.

For the next wave of feature updates, Redstone is looking to be a more realistic goal for large new additions to the OS, as Microsoft wants to make sure Windows 10 has been properly optimized to the best of its ability with Threshold Wave 2 before they go back down the path of adding new items to the OS.

And for those who are curious, no, this update wave will not change the branding to Windows 10.1, it will remain Windows 10.