Today I am pleased to announce that Windows 10 1607, also known as the
Windows 10 Anniversary Update, has been declared as Current Branch for Business (CBB) and is ready for deployment. This is an important milestone and signifies that this version has been validated by customers, OEMs and partners giving organizations the confidence to further accelerate deployments at scale.
To reach this milestone, we have addressed nearly a thousand items of feedback from all types of customers, including enterprises performing pilot deployments. With hundreds of millions of devices already running the CBB version 14393.447 installed by
KB 3200970 or any later update, as indicated in
the Windows 10 Release Info page, organizations can be assured Windows 10 1607 is fully ready for them.
The market reaction to Windows 10 has been unprecedented with a 3X increase in Windows 10 enterprise deployments over the last six months. It has been incredible to see customers from around the world embrace Windows 10, including
Australian Department of Human Services,
Hendrick Motorsports and
Crystal Group of Companies. We have also seen strong engagement from our partner ecosystem with over 900 of our largest partners trained this year alone on Windows 10 deployment.
With Windows 10 we set out to provide both advanced security and the best platform for reducing the complexities of modern IT. By implementing Windows 10, customers are
58% less likely to encounter ransomware than when running Windows 7. Enhanced cloud infrastructure allows our antimalware researchers to utilize machine learning models to identify and block malware more quickly, improving response time from hours to just minutes.
Windows 10 is also simplifying IT and significantly reducing deployment times. For example, with
Windows Upgrade Analytics, customers can better assess their readiness for Windows 10 deployment and reduce an upgrade process that used to take years to just months or weeks. Windows 10 is also our most compatible release ever and with 99% of the top 3,000 apps shown to be compatible, customers are deploying at scale with confidence.
For most organizations, no specific action is needed to take advantage of this CBB declaration. If you have the latest cumulative update installed, you are all set. We do expect to publish updated media to the
Volume Licensing Service Center and to Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) in January for those customers that need it, but this is primarily just for convenience.
Businesses are seeing significant value, enhanced security and improved productivity with Windows 10 today. With the Windows 10 1607 Current Branch for Business declaration, now is the time to accelerate your Windows 10 deployment.