Spring Update 1803 Installation Data - FYI

This is for any geeky mad scientist types that are interested in this sort of thing.

I installed the April 2018 update (1803) on 4 PCs recently.
I noticed a significant difference in the installation time between one older desktop and a newer laptop, the laptop took MUCH longer.

So when I did the update on an older laptop and a newer desktop I thought I would time it. Here are the results.

Laptop: 2010 vintage Gateway with I5-450M, 8GB RAM, wireless G connection.
Desktop: I7-3820, 16GB RAM, Ethernet connection

Laptop install, start to finish: 3 hrs, 26 Min
Initialize, Prepare to Download, Download, Awaiting install: 30 min
Installing (WU): 2 Hrs, 10 Min
Configure, Install, 4 Restarts: 1 hr

Desktop install, start to finish: 57 Min
Initialize, Prepare to Download, Download, Awaiting install: 3 min
Installing (WU): 33 Min
Configure, Install, 4 Restarts: 21 min

Quite a difference.

The other PC’s were:
Desktop I7-920, 6GB RAM, Ethernet connection - seemed as fast as the other desktop.
Laptop: I5-7200U, 12GB RAM, Wireless N connection - and was slower. But not nearly as slow as the Gateway.
Wish I timed those too.

TV2 said:

So when I did the update on an older laptop and a newer desktop I thought I would time it. Here are the results.

Laptop: 2010 vintage Gateway with I5-450M, 8GB RAM, wireless G connection.
...
Laptop install, start to finish: 3 hrs, 26 Min
Initialize, Prepare to Download, Download, Awaiting install: 30 min
Installing (WU): 2 Hrs, 10 Min
Configure, Install, 4 Restarts: 1 hr

My laptop, System One in my specs below, is a lower spec than your Gateway, but it took about an hour to update from a running 1709 to a fully functional 1803 system. There's a reason for that - I didn't use windows update, rather I downloaded the ISO and used that to update the system.

You used windows update and that employs the Unified Update Platform (UUP) to perform the upgrade...

...one of the biggest benefits UUP brings to our customers is a reduction in download size of build updates on PCs....

...Differential download packages rely on re-using files on your current OS to reconstruct the newer OS. This could include copying files as-is that have not changed between builds, or it could involve applying “binary deltas”� or “diffs”� to old files to generate newer files. Differential download packages are smaller and can take a shorter amount of time to download....

Microsoft's primary aim with UUP seems to be to reduce the download size as much as possible....

...as we roll out UUP in our retail release, users can expect their download size to decrease by approximately 35% when going from one major update of Windows to another. For retail users, the first time they get the UUP client code is part of the Creators Update, therefore, they will see the benefit of differential download packages when they go from the Creators Update to the next feature update of Windows....

An update on Unified Update Platform (UUP) for Windows 10

The first Features Update to use UUP was the Fall Creators Update. An unintended consequence of so much patching and reusing of existing files seems to be an inordinately long time to process installing the update - but only, it seems, for a significant minority of systems. Rare reports of 24 hours have been seen, but this was the more typical complaint...

I booted my Win10 machine up and it ended up d/ling something it just called "feature upgrade to version 1709", no other details. took yonks to d/l, hours to install, then about another hour to prepare...

6 hour Feature update :-/

So far I've yet to see a report of a 24 hour update for 1803, so it seems Microsoft have improved the UUP process. But it still seems to take an indeterminate time to complete.

And why did mine take an hour to update, as I had expected? Because I didn't use UUP. I updated the old fashioned predictable way - I downloaded the ISO...

...we refer to this as a canonical download package. It is a self-contained update that contains all files for the update, and does not rely on any files on your device. Canonical download packages tend to be larger in size and may take longer to download....

...but take a lot less time to install, it seems. :)

Hey Bree. Thanks for that info.
When you download the ISO and run the install, is it an In-Place upgrade or a clean install?
If it upgrades in-place that is definitely the way to go.

I am offering the info so people can be prepared for the time aspect of the process.
I'm also interested in seeing other data to see if it is the processor, the download speed, or something else that explains the huge disparity in time between machines.

Yes, an in-place upgrade, as I have always done in the past.

The only time I let windows update take charge was letting the Get Windows 10 (GWX) app update my laptop from Windows 7 to 10. After that it was use the MCT to make the install media then an in-place update for all subsequent versions:
1507 > 1511 > 1607 >1703 > 1709 > 1803.

TV2 said:

I'm also interested in seeing other data to see if it is the processor, the download speed, or something else that explains the huge disparity in time between machines.

Yes, so am I.

I'll subscribe to this thread and be watching for clues as to what determines the speed of the UUP process. For 1709 it seemed only particular models were prone to very slow updates when allowing windows update to take charge, so it seems to depend on the hardware involved. That may not necessarily mean the processor speed, it could be that the way the system is configured for the ancillary hardware and the drivers determines how much work the patching of existing files requires.

It will be interesting to see if machines that had a very slow (but ultimately successful) update to 1709 through windows update also suffer the same fate getting 1803.

Bree said:

That may not necessarily mean the processor speed, it could be that the way the system is configured for the ancillary hardware and the drivers determines how much work the patching of existing files requires.

Good point!

AMDMan2016 said:

Mom's Desktop updated via Windows Update, and took over night about 6-8 hours, by morning it was ready to restart!

Yikes! What was the internet connection on that machine? Wireless? Wireless g, n, or ac?

Your laptop vs desktop comparison is a classical example of how big difference there is on a system with 2 vs 4 cores and 2.66GHz Turbo Boost (which probably was thermal throttling and never boosted) and 3.8GHz Turbo Boost.

I bet your laptop is running a 5400RPM spinner drive while your desktop is running an SSD. :)

I've timed these installs so many times that I can almost tell a users hardware by just looking at the timed numbers for specific tasks. :)


On my 2 laptops, it takes about 35-40minutes to clean install and 45-55 minutes to do a system upgrade via WU. :)


You can see my hardware specs from my profile

TV2 said:

Yikes! What was the internet connection on that machine? Wireless? Wireless g, n, or ac?

download speed should only affect the time it takes to get to the 'ready to install' stage, from then on it's working on the downloaded files for the most part.

@AMDMan2016, how long did it take once the install proper started? What make/model was the PC? It will be interesting to see if there are particular models that are prone to slow installs, and if they are the same ones that were slow for the 1709 upgrade. Was it also slow to install when it got 1709?

Bree said:

download speed should only affect the time it takes to get to the 'ready to install' stage, from then on it's working on the downloaded files for the most part.

Yep, the download part for me takes about 2 minutes. The rest is just a bunch of number crunching and checking hashes. :)