At its Build 2017 developer conference in May, Microsoft announced that the next big Windows 10 update would be known as the Fall Creators Update. The immediate reaction among many in the press corps at Build was incredulity, quickly followed by a burning desire to laugh out loud.
It was instantly clear to everyone in the room that not only was this a terrible name, but it was a problematic one too. Indeed, I pointed this out to Microsoft, and asked if it was considering modifying the name for use in markets where "fall" wasn"t used to describe a time of year - or anything other than a tumble downwards, usually with unpleasant consequences. Microsoft made it clear that it had no intention of calling it the "Autumn Creators Update", or anything else, in other parts of the world.
So it came as quite a surprise to me, and many others, when Microsoft websites in the UK, Australia, and other countries, suddenly began referring to the Windows 10 Autumn Creators Update last month. A few days later, Microsoft changed course again, and said that the Fall Creators Update will be used globally, attributing the use of the Autumn nomenclature to "mistranslation"... from English to English.
But there"s another problem too: it"s spring in the Southern Hemisphere when it"s autumn across the rest of the planet, making the update"s name even less suitable for worldwide use. And on top of all that, there"s no escaping the fact that the Fall Creators Update name is just plain unimaginative, following the original Creators Update, which Microsoft is still rolling out.
There seem to be very few people who consider the Fall Creators Update name a good one, although some might agree that it"s a more interesting choice than the November Update; or a more fitting choice than the Anniversary Update, which arrived after Windows 10"s first anniversary.
But can you think of a better name for the Fall Creators Update? Or - given that there are many more features in the update beyond those that focus on "creativity" in any meaningful sense - should major Windows 10 updates like this one even have names? Should Microsoft instead stick with the version number - like 1709 for the Fall Creators Update - that already applies to every big update that it rolls out to the OS?
Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!