Windows 10 v1809 (that's the October 2018 release) is now business ready, claims Microsoft

It's only taken almost six months to get v1809 up to scratch for corporate roll-outs

Microsoft's troubled Windows 10 October 2018 Update - version 1809 - is finally business ready, the company has claimed. The release of the Update to corporate PCs will come just weeks before the company's spring update is supposed to be pushed out.

Windows 10 version 1809 was originally pushed out in October 2018, then suspended, before being pushed out again. In the process, it caused a plethora of problems for users, including the destruction of ZIP files and perma-borkage of people's Start menus - to name just two.

"Based on the data and the feedback we've received from consumers, OEMs, ISVs, partners, and commercial customers, Windows 10, version 1809 has transitioned to broad deployment," Microsoft's John Wilcox wrote in a brief entry on the Windows IT Pro blog.

He continued: "With this, the Windows 10 release information page will now reflect Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) for version 1809. We will continue to communicate for future releases the transition from targeted to broad deployment status."

Version 1809 of Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education will be "serviced" for 30 months, from its 13 November release date - that's backdated to November last year, not this year.

The news comes a week after a report indicating that Windows 10 users had overwhelmingly shunned the latest update, with figures from online advertising network AdDuplex indicating that version 1809 had hit just 26.4 per cent of PCs.

That will largely be down to the excessively slow nature of the roll-out to consumers - who are only ‘allowed' by Microsoft to put off updates for 35 days - and from corporates waiting for the thumbs up from Microsoft.

The AdDuplex data shows that the vast majority (66.3 per cent) are running the last Spring Update (1803). Older versions make up 3.5 per cent (1709) and 3.4 per cent using even older editions. The last few are Insiders, making up 0.4 per cent.