You can download the Windows 10 Creators Update right now, but should you?
How much of a risk is using the leaked Update Assistant?
Want to install the Creators Update on your Windows 10 PC right now? Well, you can do so even if you’re not a Windows Insider Preview tester, courtesy of an Update Assistant utility which has been leaked from Microsoft’s servers.
The leaked tool can be downloaded here, as spotted by Microsoft tipster WalkingCat. Even if you aren’t signed up to the Windows Insider Program, which is open to all, firing it up reportedly allows you to upgrade your PC to the latest version of the Creators Update.
But, should you?
Even though the Update Assistant is an official Microsoft utility, it’s not meant to be live yet – obviously folks outside of the Insider Program aren’t supposed to have access to Windows 10 builds containing the Creators Update. The new features are thought to launch next month, and even then in the form of a phased rollout, meaning that you may not receive the upgrade for some time after the initial release.
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Watch out for potential gremlins
That point is telling as to whether there might be some bugs left to squash in the version of the Creators Update that this tool downloads currently. These could cause your PC problems – indeed, even in the first week of official release, some nasty gremlins can still be around, as we saw with the previous official roll out for the Anniversary Update.
Imagine what could happen with a pre-release version then?
If you have a secondary PC, installing this there might not be such a big deal, but we’d be wary of downloading this onto our main machine simply due to the potential of things going awry.
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We might be being overcautious here, but that said, one thing many years of computing experience has taught us is that a little bit of caution goes a very long way.
We wouldn’t be surprised, either, if this particular download path ends up getting shut down fairly swiftly. So, if you do want to grab the Creators Update early, it’s probably best to move sooner rather than later (though at your own risk).
Impatience is definitely understandable when it comes to these big upgrades, when you consider that with the Anniversary Update, after two months of its release, only 35% of Windows 10 PCs had it installed as part of the roll out.
Also note that, if you are a Windows Insider, Microsoft has just released new ISOs for the Creators Update for those doing a fresh install.
Via Windows Central
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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).