Months after making the Windows 10 October 2018 Update initially available, Microsoft has started its automatic phased rollout through Windows Update.
Microsoft updated its October 2018 Update support page (via Windows Latest) on January 16 to note that the phased rollout has begun, with the initial focus on machines that are expected to have the best experience. From Microsoft:
We are now starting our phased rollout to users via Windows Update, initially offering the update to devices we believe will have the best update experience based on our next generation machine learning model.
The update remains fully available for anyone who manually selects "Check for updates" in Windows Update. Microsoft made that move in December, more than two months after the October 2018 Update was initially released, and subsequently pulled following the discovery of a major file deletion bug.
This week's start of the phased automatic rollout simply means that those who don't regularly make a habit of manually checking for updates will now be offered the October 2018 Update.
While Microsoft has fixed a number of issues that the October 2018 Update initially struggled with, it is still enforcing a few upgrade blocks, which have been in place for some time. Lingering issues with certain new Intel display drivers, F5 VPN clients, Trend Micro software, and unsupported AMD Radeon GPUs, have all caused Microsoft to block the October 2018 Update on machines using that software or hardware. The company is still looking into several of the issues, but you can keep an eye on their status and potential workarounds at the October 2018 Update support page.
