Windows 10 Mobile build .164 meant for retail open market devices and is 'nearly identical' to .122

Microsoft published Windows 10 Mobile build 10586.164 starting at 1PM ET today for those on the Insider Slow and Production release rings. Also, this release is also going to retail open market devices.

Over at the Microsoft Community support forums, Jason, who has been updating Insiders on features and new releases, shared some of the news.

As it turns out, build 10586.164 is "nearly identical" to build .122 released just last week. In a brief FAQ Jason answered some questions for users, which we'll re-publish below:

Q: Who is receiving this build?

A: This release is being sent to Retail open market devices as well as our Insiders in the WIP Slow and Release Preview rings.

Q: I'm in the WIP Fast ring. How do I obtain this .164 release?

A: Change rings in the Windows Insider app to either WIP Slow or Release Preview, take the update, and then change back to the WIP Fast ring.

Q: Why is it necessary for WIP Fast users to switch rings?

A: It's a publishing limitation. Changing rings will not be a permanent process, but it is required for this particular release.

Q: Why didn't Insiders get to test this release before releasing it to Retail users?

A: Insiders did get to test it! The previously released 10586.122 build is nearly identical to this new .164 build. There are no major feature changes between the two builds. Changes were focused on a few key bug fixes and other required updates to ensure this build was ready to release to Retail users.

Finally, Jason mentions that this is "a fairly small release overall, but it's important for Insiders to stay up-to-date".

It is not clear if this is the final shipping version of Windows 10 Mobile 1511 for all phones, including older ones. Those phones are expected to be updated sometime later this month according to an unverified report.

Additionally, it should be noted that build 10586.164 was also released for those on Windows 10 PC and you can find those changes here in our previous article.

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.