Windows 10 Creators Update Insider Preview Lays Groundwork For Smaller Windows Updates

Build 14959 brings with it core functionality that users will receive early next year with the Windows 10 Creators Update. Some of those features were included in last week’s Build 14955, but this latest build adds some exciting features like Paint 3D, which will be a boon to Surface Pro 4, Surface Book, and future Surface Studio owners.

Microsoft has also given those that take advantage of Hyper-V Virtual Machines the ability to control display scaling. With a newly added Zoom option, which is available in the View menu, you can bypass the default scaling and set your own preference (100, 125, 150 or 200).

The other big update with Build 14959 comes in the form of support for the Unified Update Platform (UUP). UUP will allow Windows 10 updates to get much smaller so that your PC isn’t downloading massive chunks of data on a regular basis.

“We have converged technologies in our build and publishing systems to enable differential downloads for all devices built on the Mobile and PC OS,” writes Microsoft’s Bill Karagounis. “A differential download package contains only the changes that have been made since the last time you updated your device, rather than a full build.”

According to Karagounis, download sizes for updates could decrease by as much as 35 percent when going from “one major update of Windows to another”. This will be of great benefit to users on low-bandwidth connections or have to contend with metered internet.

UUP will be first be rolled out to Windows Insiders using Insider Preview builds of Windows 10 Mobile, while PC users will start taking advantage of UUP by the end of 2016. Looking ahead, UUP will further be extended to IoT and HoloLens versions of Windows 10.