Microsoft has updated its Windows 10 servicing model

Microsoft claims that the changes will allow it to gain better feedback on its releases

Microsoft appears to have changed the way it releases both major and minor updates to Windows 10 insiders.

As detailed on its blog, the software giant has taken the decision to release major updates in the spring and minor releases later in the year.

Over the past few years, Microsoft has utilised a twice-annual major release cycle. This is the first time the firm has shifted to a twice-annual and minor release cycle for Windows products.

Fast Ring subscribers receive major updates and features before their Slow Ring counterparts. However, they are likely to be less polished.

Anyone running the May 2019 Update and updating to the new release will have a far faster update experience

Although Slow Ring users get major upgrades before they're released to the wider public, Fast Ring participants are given plenty of time to identify potential bugs on Microsoft's behalf. Since Satya Nadella took over as CEO, Microsoft has slashed the number of software testers it employs in repeated rounds of layoffs - pushing testing out to the wider community.

But in 2019 Microsoft has shaken up its Windows update structure, with Fast Ring users skipping Windows 10 Build 19H2 and getting the Spring 2020 version months ahead of schedule. Meanwhile, Slow Ring users have received 19H2.

"The next feature update for Windows 10 (known in the Windows Insider Program as 19H2) will be a scoped set of features for select performance improvements, enterprise features and quality enhancements," explained Microsoft's John Cable.

"To deliver these updates in a less disruptive fashion, we will deliver this feature update in a new way, using servicing technology (like the monthly update process) for customers running the May 2019 Update who choose to update to the new release."

He added that "anyone running the May 2019 Update and updating to the new release will have a far faster update experience because the update will install like a monthly update".

As noted by Ars Technica, Microsoft isn't pushing out 19H2 as a major release. Instead, it's being positioned as a partial update to help users fix existing bugs, while the Spring 2020 update will be the major update that Fast Ring insiders get months before everyone else.

Another interesting change is that, as opposed to getting bug fixes and other minor updates within one release, Microsoft will take a scatter-gun approach.

John Wilcox, who also works at Microsoft, said its new "controlled feature rollout" would enable the company to "gain better feedback on overall build quality".